


Bad Timing

by Littledarkshine



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Brotherly Love, F/M, Fights, Sarcasm, Sleep Deprivation, Torture, brain washing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-07-15 17:00:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 28,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16067438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Littledarkshine/pseuds/Littledarkshine
Summary: Just when Ruby thought things could not go any worse than they already did she finds herself in an endless loop of things going South.Her way out of the loop is the person who caused her 70 years of living in fear but with the things being how they are she decides that any way out is a good way out.That is until she has to be a hero in a time she never was supposed to live in but feels like home to her. More than her own time....First five chapters are Ruby's back story. Sets in CA: the first avenger and CA:CW but only shortly as there will be my own plot set somewhere after CW and before Black Panther. Will eventually lead up to Infinity war.





	1. A life no one asks for

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo... This would be my first fanfiction to ever be published. What you can read here is more or less the prologue/explanation of how my OC gets her abilities.
> 
> Please be nice to me and my English as it is not my mother tongue. xD
> 
> If you don't want to read about Ruby's past you could skip forward to either ch. 5 where civil war starts or to chapter 8 if you are as tired about reading civil war in yet another fanfiction as I was while writing it. xD
> 
> Have fun anyways!

Her leg bounced up and down, her gaze was locked on the green floor. She hated hospitals, especially since it was like a second home to her. A few years ago she had been diagnosed with a brain tumour, ever since she had monthly appointments with her Doc. She sighed and brushed her dirty blonde hair out of her face. Her stomach felt weird. She was scared, she always was when she was about to see her Doc. A month ago he had told her that she had about two months left to live. It had been a bad month. She hadn't bothered to go to school anymore, even though she was a good student and most of her classes were a distraction. Why should she care for a distraction when soon everything would be over anyway?

Her gaze wandered from the green floor to the other patients waiting with her in the waiting area. Most of them were completely or partly bald, other than her. Her Doc's had said that a therapy would only cost money and that the tumour was in a spot in the middle of her brain. The chances of her dying because of a therapy were higher than the chance of her feeling any better. She hated the other patients. At least they got the chance to live. More or less.

Her leg still bounced up and down, causing some of the patients looking at her annoyed, she couldn't care less if she was totally honest. But there was a person who cared. "Ruby, stop that." Ruby's blue eyes shot to the woman sitting next to her. Her skin was wrinkly and even more so with the stern expression she had. Her blonde hair was held in place by way too much hairspray. The makeup the elderly woman wore always creeped Ruby out a bit but... It was her Grandma, so she couldn't really say anything. She stopped the bouncing and resumed to stare at anything she could find. Especially the guy in the corner was funny to look at. She swore she saw a little bubble forming when he exhaled, he was slumbering deeply.

"We're here for an eternity, Grams." Ruby complained. "Where is the point?" her grandma laid down the magazine she was reading. "How to lose 30 pounds in x days" was probably somewhere on the front page. "Doctor Ray said there was an experimental operation that might help you." she revealed. Ruby's eyes widened. "What?" she asked, not believing what she just heard. "I cannot really explain. We have to wait for the Doc." her grams said but Ruby couldn't really wait to hear more about that.

"Miss Bell in room 103 please." the assistant said and before Ruby's grandma could even process that the assistant had entered the room, Ruby shot up and practically skipped to room 103, forgetting her grandmother in the waiting area. The young woman opened the door grinning, hoping to hear good news. Behind a small desk that was only occupied by a screen and a file, sat Doctor Ray, smiling at Ruby. The rest of the room was rather empty, except for a shelf with books and a piece of paper that was a diploma. "It's good to see you, Ruby. How are you today?" her Doc asked. "I'm better than most days, not as tired. No headache." she explained. "My grams mentioned something that could help me?" she said not wanting to wait longer than she needed.

"Ah, yes. Well, it's nothing you should decide lightly. It is an experimental operation where a part of your brain will be removed and replaced by artificial neurones. We hope to achieve that you can live the rest of your life as normal as it gets." Doctor Ray explained. "But you should know, that there is a high chance you might die. And even if we can remove your brain it still might be that you are left crippled." Ruby's heart sank. She shouldn't have gotten her hopes up too soon. Of course, there had to be a negative side. But it was her only chance to survive, was it not? She cleared her throat that had tightened somewhat. "There is no way I'm not doing this. Whether I die because of this or in another month." her gaze shifted to the small window next to the door she had entered a few minutes ago. Her grandma sat there waiting with a sad expression on her face. Ruby knew she would cry as soon as she hears what her granddaughter had decided. She always cried because of Ruby. She had lost so many and she was about to lose the only family she had left. "It doesn't make any difference."

...

Doctor Ray had set Ruby on the list and it only took another week until she and her grandma entered the hospital again. Hopefully for the last time. They sat in one of the rooms, not talking. Mainly because neither knew what to say. Partly because they were afraid those were the last words spoken. A light knock on the door had Ruby's attention. It was the nurse who was there to prepare Ruby for her operation. One bundle of her blonde hair after the other touched the ground. That was probably the worst part of that all. Losing her hair. "Hey Grams." she said softly when the nurse had left. Her grandma looked up. She looked exactly like Ruby, just a bit older. "Just in case I won't make it... I love you. My parents loved you. Even Ollie loved you. And if I won't come back, you can be sure we all are still with you." it probably was not the best thing to tell her, but she had to tell her, just in case...

"I love you too, Ruby."

When the nurse came back Ruby laid down on the bed that was then pushed towards where she would be operated. Her heart rate got quicker and quicker and her head pounded. To say she was scared was an understatement. She was about to have a full grown panic attack. But before that could happen she had the sedative in her veins. "Don't fight it, you will be fine." the Doc said, as her eyelids got heavier with every breath. She was going to be just fine...

...

Slowly Ruby's senses came back to her. First of all, she could see again. She opened her eyes and was blinded, how she hated those lamps that were directly above her bed. She turned her head to the right but instead of the white wall that was usual for any hospital, there was just a dark green curtain that wobbled around. She did not understand, her mind still drugged. Her head turned left and right. There were red stains on the curtain, but why? What happened there and why on earth was Ruby there? It did not matter. Even in her drugged state, she knew she had to get away. She tried to stand up but found her wrists fixed to the very uncomfortable table she was laying on. Apparently, she had made a lot of noise as someone stepped into the small "room". Just then she began to finally process sounds around her. There were screams of agony. Pleads to stop whatever was done to the people begging.

The person who entered the small room was Doctor Ray. Ruby's body began to freeze. She was tricked, he would kill her. "Oh finally awake, are we?" he asked, his voice sounding nothing like the warm caring doctor she knew all those years. "Please, I don't want this." she said, not even having the slightest that she was about to experience the worst pain in her entire life. "Oh, pretty. We haven't even started the fun. You signed for this. And you will be part of this. Till. The. End." he smiled maniacally. "Part of what? I am just a girl." she breathed her whole body was shaking, not only because of the cold that began to creep into her bones but because of fear. "Part of our army, silly. We will fight to get our rights back." he laughed once more. "Our?" she asked still not getting what he meant.

His eyes seemed to turn red. But Ruby was sure she was still drugged and only imagined that part. "We, superhuman beings. Banned from the government. Hunted and erased." he said through gritted teeth, he seemed to really hate the government. "I don't have any powers." Ruby said. "There is no point in keeping me." whether they would just let her go or kill her, she did not mind anymore. Not at this point. She doubted she would ever care about anything. "Oh, you are right. You are not special, not yet anyway. But soon you will." he left without saying anything else. What was she going to do?

...

Ruby shook uncontrollably, her body was freezing cold and she hated the cold. The screams around her never stopped, the lights were never turned off and she soon realised that everything within this building, she assumed to be a warehouse, was meant to torture. She was exhausted but she could not find sleep. Every time her eyes closed someone screamed for help. Or the light just annoyed her too much to actually find sleep.

Hours had passed and she was scared to death, knowing that this was only the silence before the storm. And she was right. Only Minutes later a huge, muscly man entered the room, two metal pipes in his hands. Ruby's eyes widened as she saw him step closer. Her heart raced and she squirmed, trying to get away but she knew there was no way she could escape. He held her by the throat with his left hand as he put the pointed end on her right shoulder. "No, don't please!" she begged but the man started to push the metal pipe in her skin. "Stop!" she screamed but she soon had no more words to say, she only screamed in pain. The pain never stopped. Black sports appeared before her eyes. She felt sick. But just as the pain was bearable he let go of her throat and took the other pipe. "Please.." she whispered then felt the same pain in her left shoulder. She screamed again, tears rolling down her cheeks.

What did she do to deserve this? Nothing. She probably just had a bad timing to be alive.

Her breath was anything but steady, she hoped he would leave her alone for the day but no. She did not dare to look down, her glassy gaze was fixed on the green curtain. The next thing she felt was that every muscle in her body contracted, her insides felt like they were boiling, it just hurt, everything hurt. Then it stopped. She was lucky she did not bite off her tongue or broke off any of her teeth. Before the pain began again she made sure she had at least some of her clothing in her mouth. She had to survive this hell. It began again.

...

Weeks had passed, heck maybe even months had passed and Ruby was still on the table. The only positive side to all the electroshocks probably was that her muscles never began to get weaker. She coughed slightly, turned her head left and right. Her shoulders hurt badly. Just like her torso and stomach hurt from all the cuts and bruises. Why are humans such monsters? She coughed once more. She will survive this.

...

She must have fallen asleep because the next thing she was aware of was the laugh that woke her up. It was the muscly man who stepped back in the room. Her eyes shot open and her heart rate was up to 180 faster than any racing car would ever be. She looked at the man and practically hoped to only find this stupid battery for electroshocks on him. But he had more metal pipes with him instead. "No.. No, no, no." she murmured. This was bad. Ruby began to hyperventilate. She shut her eyes, she could not look at that. She felt him holding down her ankle and she squished her hands together, probably turning her knuckles white. She could feel the cold metal on her hip slowly being dragged down to her knee leaving a slight scratch on its way. Then she could feel the pressure build up and the warm blood spill. He was about to pierce a metal pipe through her knee. "No!" she screamed, ripping open her eyes.

Her surroundings suddenly change. The green curtains were replaced by wider concrete walls, the table she was previously laying on disappeared, one of the pipes was gone too. Even the stupid lamp that always blinded her was gone. Her breath started to even out. Whatever force had just saved her life, she did not care. She was just grateful. Exhaustion took over and her world turned black.

...


	2. The Captain

Her head felt like it was about to explode. All she felt was cold when she finally woke up. The exhaustion was still there, probably even worse. Ruby's shoulders hurt, the right one was worse than the left one since it was still blocked by the metal pipe. On the other hand, she wished that she had metal pipes in both wounds as the left shoulder was bleeding and she had no way to stop that from happening. She would bleed to death. Ruby wondered how she ended up there and where "there" actually was. Was she near the warehouse with those men who constantly tortured people? She held her breath and listened. Absolute silence. It was nice for a change. Her body was too weak to go anywhere so she just laid there hoping to gather enough energy. 

"Oh, you are right. You are not special, not yet anyway. But soon you will." Doctor Ray had said. Was this how she ended up somewhere else? Was this how people got powers? Stress and torture? She shook her head with tears in her eyes. Partly she was thankful that she did not have to go through any of this anymore and partly she was scared. Scared that they had made her a monster. Scared of what she could do. Did she teleport out of there? She took the math and was sure that if she did not die, she had teleported. Her heart raced at the thought. What else could she do? She knew she should not be excited about any of this but she could not help it. Since she was a little girl she always had loved the comics about superheroes. She did not read many of them, as most were banned by the government. But any comic she could get her hands on she read up and down. 

She sighed. What should she do? She wondered how her Grams was doing. Heather probably thought her granddaughter was dead. Maybe it was better that way. Who knew what the government would do if they found out Ruby had powers. They could kill both, her and her grandmother. It was safer to just stay away.  
If she had any luck she would just bleed to death in the next minutes before she would get emotional. She really got cynic in her time back in the warehouse. Her body got colder and it began to shake as she got weaker. The blood loss was getting worse. "I don't want this..." she murmured shaking more and more. She could give up now or she could fight.

Whatever she would have decided for, an explosion shocked her enough to actually try and get up. Shaking she pushed herself up with her left arm, as the right was still blocked by the pipe. But all she could do was stand there, holding onto the concrete for dear life as she tried not to just fall flat on her face. Another row of explosions shook the earth and she found herself on her knees, her determination vanished more and more with each explosion. "Shit." she cursed under her breath. She could not believe how fast she gave up but what she did not realise was that her body began to protest. She could physically not get up anymore.

It was then she placed her hands on the ground and noticed that it was getting hotter very fast. It was not made of concrete but of metal. The air around her was getting hotter too. The longer she sat there in her death trap the less oxygen she had. Small black spots began to dance in front of her eyes, her skin began to feel funny and her face began to feel numb. She was still sitting on her knees, coughing when black smoke filled the area she was sitting in. She hoped she did not hallucinate when two of the black spots began to look suspiciously like two men.

"Help." she said weakly. She cursed internally, when would this hell called her life finally end? Her arm with which she held herself upwards began to shake even worse. She would soon just fall down. "Help!" she screamed with the last bit of her energy. Her arm broke away and she laid flat on her back, just breathing the last bit of air. Ruby turned her head to the two men that apparently had heard her. The last thing she felt was two strong arms picking her up. Black consumed her once again like an old friend.

...

When Ruby woke up next she for once did not have any pain. Instead, she felt rather comfortable and warm. She opened her eyes, naively hoping the last months had been just a bad dream, a nightmare. But she was disappointed when her eyes gazed up to find yet another new environment. It looked a lot like a hospital but.. old... and more like a tent than a real building. Where on earth was she? On her sides were curtains - no blood stains to her relieve. And her hands were not chained to the bed she was laying on. As she looked around she realised she was in fact in a tent. But why? "Hello?" she said, her voice sounded rather croaky. "Is anyone there?" Her voice sounded more like the voice of a boy than her own voice. She sighed.

After another "hello" a nurse finally came to see her. "Ah, you are finally awake. You slept rather long, dear." she said smiling. She had nice and long brown hair and stunningly red lips. Her hair made Ruby a bit jealous though and unconsciously she felt what state her own hair was in. It was grown back a bit, it barely reached her ear. "How long did I sleep?" Ruby asked. "About a week." she said to which Ruby let her head fall back into the pillow. "Want to tell me what happened?" the nurse asked. "I was... abducted. By some crazy guys. They said something about... putting together an army." Ruby murmured. Talking about it was different. It felt... wrong. As if she was just telling a story. "Hydra..." the nurse whispered. "What?" Ruby asked, not sure if she had heard correctly. "Nothing, Dear. You should rest." she smiled friendly. Ruby nodded and turned her head to the right. Next to her bed was a small table with a calendar on it. November 9th. She furrowed her eyebrows.

It had been January when she had been abducted. She really had been gone for that long? She wanted to turn her gaze back to the ceiling when she read something that made her stomach turn. Her eyes widened. "1943?!" she shrieked, now sounding like a girl again. She hyperventilated. This got to be a joke, a really bad one. The nurse had jumped at Ruby's outburst and was now trying to calm her. Her chest rose and fell rapidly and there was no way of calming her. She lived in 2037, not in 1943, how was she going to survive? She would probably die just because of the fact that she was too stubborn to marry some rich guy to buy her food and clothes. "This can't be real." she cried. "Everything's going to be fine." the nurse tried again. Ruby threw away the blanket and tried to run for it. She had to get away, as far as possible. "Get someone to catch him! He should not be running!" Ruby did not even realise the nurse thought she was a guy.

She punched away the beige tent door and ran outside. The ground was muddy and her socks were instantly soaked. The sky was grey and dark clouds were right above her. All over the place were tents, soldiers were running from one to another, other soldiers were in groups jogging around. That had to be a stupid joke...

When she heard the nurse call after her the panic set back in and without her wanting it, her legs began to run again. She ran into the woods and up a hill before she stopped and leaned against a tree to breathe. Just breathe. In and out. This could not happen. That was horrible. She really was followed by misfortune. Slowly she slid down and sat on the dirty ground, not caring for the clothes she was currently wearing. She also did not care for the steps several yards behind her. Her gaze was fixed on a sole point on the ground. Her knees were close up to her chest and even though her shoulders had protested her arms were crossed on her knees. Her chin rested on her arms.

The steps got closer and Ruby noticed it were two people. Probably two men as she was, as she had observed, in some kind of military base. "Hey there." One man said and rounded the tree on the right side. He did not sound evil, he had a nice voice, deep and somewhat concerned. But also a bit pained. It sounded like he had been wounded not long ago. She crawled up into a ball a bit more, still uncomfortable with people around her. "You should really go back to bed. You have been wounded quite a bit." He said. "I couldn't care any less." She responded, her voice still hoarse. He seemed to be taken aback. On her left then appeared the other man. She did not look up to any of them. "Maybe we should just carry her back." The man on the left suggested. The one on the right snorted but it was shortlived as it seemed to hurt him.

"You take her, Punk. I couldn't even lift a bag of potatoes right now." The right man said. Ruby looked up rather confused. "I don't want to go back." She told them. "Just let me sit here." Then she placed her head back on her arms. The guy on the right sat down next to her which made her flinch and sit a bit farther on the left. "Alright. Five more minutes, I need a break anyway." He told her. She inspected him out of the corner of her eye. He was tall and had nice defined muscles even though the light green pullover he wore. His hair was short and black and he had a light stubble. As far as she could see his eyes were a nice blue. Then the other guy sat down too, making her flinch again. This time she looked up to look at the other guy. 

His hair was blonde and he too was tall and had well-defined muscles. Other than his friend he did not have even the slightest stubble. But just as good looking blue eyes. Her eyes widened as she recognised the man. Or thought she did. "Captain America?"


	3. He's not the only one

"Captain America?" was all she got out. "Oh, she knows you, Punk." said the man on her right, smiling at her. She looked over at him, not really recognising his face. "Want to tell us what happened?" The Captain asked instead. Ruby turned her face back to him, still not fully believing, what she was seeing. “I already told the nurse, ask her.” she quietly said and laid her head back on her arms. The action caused her to flinch as her shoulders hurt. Both men noticed her pain. “Come on, doll face. Let's get you back.” The man on her right said. She still did not know their names.

“My mother told me not to trust strangers.” She said in hopes they would get frustrated with her and just leave her where she sat on the muddy ground. “You know him.” The man on the right said pointing at the captain. Ruby snorted. “I know his hero name from one of those comics.” The men looked at each other just to look back down at her. The guy on her right stood up and stepped in front of her. She looked up at his face. He was handsome and she liked the stubble on his chin. She slightly shook her head at the weird thought. Then he held his hand out to her as if to pull her up or shake her hand. 

His intentions were the letter from them both. “Sergeant James Barnes.” He introduced himself. Slightly surprised by his gesture she took his hand and shook it. It was a strong hand and it felt warm to her cold skin. “Ruby Bell.” She said quietly. “I'm happy to meet you, Ruby.” He said and something inside of her had a feeling that he was a flirt... But it made her belly feel warm nonetheless. When she still stared at his blue eyes with a small smile on her lips and still held his hands the captain cleared his throat. “Don't let him blind you.” He then stepped in front of her too and held out his hand. Ruby let go of Sergeant Barnes hand and instead took the captain's hand. “Steve Rogers.” He too smiled at her but nothing of the minimal amount of magic appeared with the two now.

In the end, she had to surrender and let them help her up. They slowly walked towards the base when Sergeant Barnes decided to ask her questions. “How did you get in there?” He meant the warehouse where they found her. She inhaled sharply. What was she supposed to say? Teleported and time travelled there? She did not even know where “there” was or what it was. Should she lie? She could simply say that she did not have a clue how she ended up in there but in a way she had an idea. Nevertheless, the most exciting thing in their time was Captain America, she doubted that she should tell them about her probably-abilities. 

“I'm not sure.” she told them then. Both of them looked at her confused. “I did not mean to eavesdrop but didn't you tell the nurse you were abducted?” Captain Rogers asked. Her cheeks got a little warmer at that. Just when she thought a small lie, that was only partly a lie, would not do a lot of harm. “I-I-I” she stammered. “It's okay, Ruby. You can tell us. Maybe the colonel spares you when you already talked to us.” Sergeant Barnes joked. Ruby stopped walking abruptly and looked at the two men, who stopped a few feet in front of her, wide-eyed. “What do you mean with “Maybe spare” me?” She felt her heart rate getting faster yet again. Panic rose in her chest.

“Nothing. No one will harm you, I was just joking. The colonel was just curious how you got there. Did Hydra use you to experiment on?” He held up his hands as if to calm her down. Only then she realised she was in a fighting stance. She took two deep breaths, she really had to get rid of this stupid panic attacks. “I don't know what Hydra is... But someone experimented on me. Not with chemicals and such things... But... different.” She explained, taking down her fists that had formed. “I'm sorry.” Captain Rogers said. He knew how much pain experiments could cause. But even he had no idea of the pain Ruby had inside of her. “You did not cause me pain, Captain Rogers.” Ruby murmured stepping in between the two men and urging them to move on. She was beginning to freeze. “You can call me Steve.” he said to which Sergeant Barnes smiled at her and told her to call him Bucky. “Why Bucky?” she asked. Neither James nor Barnes could be formed into Bucky in her head.  
…

After another week in the tent, she initially woke up in she healed enough to get out of there. It was also only a few more days before the soldiers who were wounded would return to Brooklyn. Ruby spends most of her time sleeping or talking with Steve and Bucky. Both of them would return to Brooklyn as well. But where would she go? She wondered if she would go to Brooklyn too and if she did what would she do there? She had no income to get a flat much less was married to be accepted into one. But that problem might just solve itself by time.

She had just changed into one of the light green pullovers and the also green but slightly darker trousers when two soldiers stopped in front of her bed. She looked up at them while putting on a pair of combat boots. But neither of them looked like he was about to talk. “Can I help you?” she asked raising her left eyebrow. Silence. She opened her mouth to say something but just closed it again. That was weird. When she finished putting on her boots she wanted to leave the tent and meet Steve who had promised to take a walk through the woods but the soldiers had other ideas. The grabbed her arm and pushed her back. “You are not allowed to leave until the colonel arrives.” They told her.

Ruby's face felt cold and numb as if all the blood had just left it. She had told Steve and Bucky as much as she knew. She even told them small bits about her suspicion about her abilities. Of course, she knew that she was more than normal now but she had to be authentic. She could not just accept the fact or just tell them she had superpowers. Even though there was nothing super about it. But that was another story. She had to concentrate on her breath to not panic yet again. Maybe she was lucky and Steve would come looking for her, or Bucky. No such luck.

An elderly man stepped in front of her. He had grey hair and more wrinkles on his face than her Grams on her whole body. And her Grams was about a hundred years old. “Mister Bell, if you would please follow us.” He just said sternly. Did he just say mister? Ruby furrowed her eyebrows, confused as to why people thought she was a boy. Was it because of her short hair? “Weird time...” she thought to herself but followed the man she assumed was the colonel. The two soldiers followed her.

The air outside was cold and was getting colder each day if she would stay much longer she assumed she could finally see snow. It would be the first time she would see snow... She shook her head again, there were more urgent things to think about. Like the old man who leads her to another tent. Just before she entered the tent the small group headed for, Steve had found her. He looked at her questioningly but all she could do was shrug before she was rudely pushed inside by one of the men behind her. They waited outside though.

Inside the tent, it was darker than she had expected. There was a single table with two chairs on opposite sides. “Sit down.” The man ordered. Not wanting any more enemies than she assumed she already had she sat down quietly. “I'm colonel Phillips. Tell me how you got into that Hydra base and what your mission there was, boy.” his voice scared her more than she had anticipated. She felt her heart pump as hard as it could. Adrenalin formed inside of her. “I don't really know how I got there, Sir. I don't even kn-” He interrupted her with a punch on the table. “Don't lie to me!” She flinched.

Did he know what she told Bucky and Steve? They did not tell the colonel everything, did they? She had no other choice but tell him anything she knew, leaving out the fact that she was stuck in a time she never belonged to. “I was abducted and experimented on by some people. I cannot say for sure if it was Hydra, as I still don't really know what Hydra is.” She said, never looking him in the eye as she was scared the eye contact would kill her. “Is that the truth?” He asked then, his voice did not sound at all like he was believing her. More like he was about to yell at her. “Yes, Sir.” she mumbled. “I don't believe you!” He shouted right into her face. 

Afraid that he would punch her next instead of the table she jumped up and went for the run. Other than expected though, the colonel just stared confused at the chair she had sat on moments ago. She could not bother with wondering what was happening and why he did not move. She pushed open the entrance – or in her case the exit – of the tent. But stopped dead in her tracks. A deafening scream left her throat as she just fell to her knees and stared at her hand, or more at where her hand was supposed to be. It was invisible. She panted heavily, panic should be her second name as it once again settled in her chest, tears streaming down her face. 

She watched in horror as her hand bit by bit began to appear again. The colonel had turned around when she had screamed, the two men that had guarded the tent had entered it and Steve, who had been waiting close by also rushed in. “What happened?” he asked Ruby as he knelt down next to her. She just kept staring at her hand. Her vision was blurred by the tears that never stopped coming. “Get Carter.” Was all the colonel said before he left. Steve looked at him as if he wanted to kill the colonel but then helped Ruby to stand up. Her knees were shaking wildly. It was a wonder she did not just fall back down. “Come one, let's get you out of here.” Steve said calmly.

That the colonel had plans with her was unimportant at that time.

…

Ruby sat in a bar in Brooklyn, nursed the neck of an empty bottle and stared at the counter of the bar. Her mind was anywhere but in the present. She did not want to be there anymore. After the colonel had left the tent and Steve had helped her out a woman had approached them. Ruby could practically smell Steve's interest in the woman but said nothing. Her name was Peggy Carter and as it seemed the colonel had told her to train Ruby. The young woman was officially a recruit now. It was 1943, what else had she expected? The war was bad. They needed all the help they could get. Even after she told them that she was in fact not a boy, as they all thought (They did not really care what she said either though) they still wanted to train her. Make her a weapon. 

She did not even know what she could do, maybe she was more than useless in this war. How on earth do they think she was supposed to help them? “Another one, please.” she told the man behind the counter and waited for another bottle of beer. At least the salary was good enough to get drunk. Just as she reached for the bottle to drink from it. Someone took it away. “Hey!” she protested, standing up. Not a good idea as the alcohol in her blood made her head dizzy. “Hey, doll face.” The one who had snatched away the bottle said. She groaned as she realised in her drunk state that it was Bucky. “Give me my bottle back.” She ordered with her best stern voice. The slight slur of her words kind of destroyed that effect.

“Big day tomorrow, don't you think you should arrive without and hangover?” He asked smiling. “Shut it, you know I don't want to go there.” Ruby pouted like she was a five year old. Bucky just took another sip of the beer as he watched her sit back down. “Don't even know what they think. How am I supposed to help with my 'special abilities' if I don't even know what I can do? I can't even punch someone without apologising. Not that I ever tried.” She rambled which just caused Bucky to grin at her. “You can punch me without apologising.” he told her to which he earned a punch on his arm. “See?” he teased. “That's different, you are a goof.” she sighed and dropped her arms on the counter along with her head. But she had to smile anyway. 

Bucky placed the bottle on the counter and paid for the beer which Ruby did not even notice. What she noticed though was how Bucky picked her up and carried her outside. Maybe she had one or two drinks too much. “Let me down.” she protested half-heartedly while hanging upside down on his shoulder. “You would just run back inside and drink your head off.” He said. “Damn right.” Ruby agreed. “I think it's not right to force you to fight.” Bucky said then. “But Peggy just wants to train you. You can still decide yourself if you want to join us in the fight or not.” Ruby sighed. Should she really help in a war she already knows the end of? What else was she supposed to do? She did not belong in this time, but she was stuck. She could also just get off her ass and help. “I'd like to fight alongside you and Steve, you know.” she said tiredly before she fell asleep.


	4. Bad feeling

The next few months, Ruby did not have much time. Most of her time she had to train, it was actually nice for a change to not lie around and hope that one does not die. It was nice to learn to fight so things like her past would not happen to her again as easily as they did. Peggy was a nice woman and the two of them became good friends. Ruby woke up early, had breakfast and then trained for at least three hours before having lunch.

While she was in Brooklyn Steve and Bucky were all over Europe. Even when they were in Brooklyn too, Steve did not talk a whole lot to her. She assumed it was because being a hero was stressful. Bucky, on the other hand, spent a lot of time with her, even training with her, mostly hand to hand combat and fighting with knives. It was August in 1944, she had almost spent one year in another time and if she was honest she did not feel much more out of place than in her own time. She even felt somewhat at home.

“You need to cover your right side more.” Bucky told her while they both waited for the other one to attack. “I think I am fine.” she said playfully. “Are you?” he asked. Faster than she had anticipated he had poked her right side, exactly where he knew she was ticklish. She jerked to the opposite side and was then caught in a clinch by him. “Great cover. Really.” He teased still holding her. “Alright, alright, you won. But only because you had the advantage of knowing my weaknesses.” she said patting his arm and smirking. She knew when she had lost. 

“Heard anything from Steve?” she asked wondering where that guy was. He never was in the pub when she was and when he was he was too busy to talk. Bucky looked to the floor. “I guess it's just a bit stressful for him at the moment.” He tried to excuse his friend. “Oh please. We both know he does not like me training to go on missions with you guys. Newsflash, I don't like you guys going on missions either. Jeez, you could die!” Ruby was annoyed by them, greatly annoyed. Bucky knew she was right. She always was very nervous when they left for another mission even though they always came back more or less okay.

“I think Steve does not trust me.” Ruby finally said while packing away her bandages. “Why would you say that?” Bucky asked, not understanding what she meant. “Well, what if I fuck up on my first mission? Maybe he expects that. Not that I judge him for it, I mean no one really knows what I can do and the things I know I can do... I can't control them.” she sighed and took the bag with her training utensils. “Maybe you should just try to trust yourself. Play around with the things you know. You can learn to control your abilities. And no one expects you to use them on our missions.” he told her grabbing her by the shoulders and looking at her. She avoided his gaze. “Well, they kinda do. That's the whole point of me training here, isn't it?”

…

The following two months Ruby had tried to control her abilities, some things, like manipulating smaller items and setting them back in time, worked. Sort of. She had not known she could do that until she accidentally dropped a vase and watched it glide back up on the table. After it had shattered. She never told anyone about it she was afraid they would expect her to use this ability to their advantage. 

The second thing she tried to work on was vanishing when she was scared. It was good to know she could do that but in a store when someone asked her if she needed help... Uh well, let's just say it had been a not so good day for her. Mostly she could suppress the urge to disappear and occasionally she could let her fingers or her whole hand disappear. At least when she had enough energy and was concentrating solely on her task. 

Then finally came the day when Peggy told her to get ready.

She was leaving Brooklyn.

… 

Every breath she took was more than unpleasant. Steve, who still was more than unhappy with her being there, Bucky, her and five other soldiers were standing on a snow-covered mountain. In front of them was an abyss none of them hoped to fall into. There was a single zip line hanging to the other side of the abyss. The only thing she could see was the rails that were barely visible among the snow.

“Remember when I made you ride the Cyclone at Coney Island?” Bucky asked Steve both men looked to the other side where the zip line was embedded into the stones of the mountain. “Yeah, and I threw up?” Steve asked. “This isn't the payback, is it?” Bucky asked. If Ruby was not as nervous as she was she would have laughed at the two but she could barely keep her thoughts focused. Steve and Bucky would go first after that it was her turn. Behind her, Gabe Jones would follow. 

As soon as they would land on the train Steve and Bucky would enter the train they were currently still waiting for somewhere in the front and she would go with the rest of the soldiers. She took another deep breath that burned on her insides. How she hated the cold. 

Gabe suddenly spoke up. “We were right. Dr. Zola's on the train. Hydra dispatcher gave him permission to open up the throttle. Wherever he's going, they must need him bad.” James Falsworth spoke up next. “Let's get going because they're moving like the devil.” Ruby readied herself and stood behind Bucky who gave her a quick reassuring smile. 

“We only got about a 10-second window. You miss that window, we're bugs on a windshield.” Steve explained. Ruby snorted. “Heroic speech.” Jacques Dernier, a guy Ruby really liked then told them to get moving. Steve jumped first followed by Bucky, Ruby and then Gabe, just as planned.

Gabe and Ruby entered the train and began to search it for the Doctor. She knew the thing she would do next was not a good thing but she could not help herself. Gabe snuck further into the train while Ruby heard people fight. She tried to reassure herself that both Steve and Bucky would be fine as long as they were together but she had this bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. She went to the opposite side of where Gabe had gone.

There was a heavy door with just a small window to look through. But it was enough to see a man with some sort of laser cannon attacking Bucky. Her breath was caught in her throat and she began hammering against the door to distract the man or to somehow get into the same part of the train as Bucky was. She saw that he ran out of ammunition. “Buck!” she screamed and before she could realise it, she stood behind the man who was attacking her friend. Her body reacted faster than her mind and had him in a clinch, pulling him away. Bucky sped forwards punching him square in the face. The man, however, managed to throw Ruby to the side, where she hit her head and was disorientated for a moment. 

The next thing she was aware of was Steve, who screamed Bucky's name. What happened? She pushed herself up and stumbled around the pile of crates in the middle of the compartment. The wall was blasted open, probably by one of the two men with the laser cannons now laying on the ground. Bucky was hanging on a small pipe, trying to reach for Steve's hand as he too held to just a small pipe. Both pipes were about to break off the wall. Again Ruby's body reacted faster than her mind pulling up her arms and concentrating on the pipes. She could see that Steve noticed that his pipe was now secure but before she could do the same with Bucky's pipe, he fell. Screaming in agony.

“No!” Steve screamed before he got back into the compartment. Ruby had to sit down. It was her fault, if only she had concentrated more, on both pipes. She killed Bucky. Her throat felt dry and it began to tighten it was hard for her to breathe. Losing someone was nothing like she had read in books. Nothing sounded like she was under water. It felt so real. Everything was louder and seemed to crash her. “My fault.” she breathed while tears ran down her cheeks. Why could she not have luck just one damn time? A scream left her lungs as she punched the crate behind her. She felt the pain surge through her arm.

“Why didn't you help him?!” Steve shouted at her. Suddenly she was aware that she was not alone in that part of the train. “I could- I was-” she began to stammer. Her heart beat way to fast for her own good. What was she supposed to say? What should she do? She clasped the dog tags that hung around her neck. She clasped them as if her life depended on them. “You should have let me fall! With the serum, I have a higher chance of surviving! You killed him!” He practically screamed at her. “I know! I- I-”

She shook her head, she did not want this to be true. Why was the reality so cruel? “Get away. And pray I won't find you, Bell.” He suddenly said dangerously silent. Her blue eyes shot up and focused on him. His expression said all she needed to know. He said that in full honesty. The next moment she found herself back on the rails. Her heart hurt. The only friends she had had in a very long time... she lost both in one go. 

She shut her eyes and curled up in a ball and spend hours out in the cold just screaming and crying. Her whole body hurt, especially her throat did. But she had to get up. She had three options. Get up and fight for her life, get killed by the cold or get caught by Steve and... well, get killed by him. “I'm so sorry Bucky.” she mumbled looking down the abyss the last time. “So sorry...”

What had she done to deserve this?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That is officially the end of Ruby's backstory. The main story will begin with chapter five. 
> 
> Thank you for reading ^-^


	5. Chapter 5

"Again! Again!" The young boy chanted in Russian while the woman with the dirty blonde hair let her playing cards disappear in her hoodie. "Sorry, I got to go." she answered in his language eyeing two strange men on the other side of the street. She placed the strap of her backpack on her right shoulder while she began to go towards a small alley. Not wanting to risk anything she shortly looked around and then up to the roof of one of the buildings. After a blink of an eye, she was gone and sat safely behind a wall on the roof she had looked at moments ago.

Just for a short moment, she let her gaze wander through the crowd beneath her and as she thought the two men talked to the boy as he pointed at the alley she had disappeared in. She wished the men would not wear base caps as from her point of view there was no way she could identify their faces. Their posture, however, told her that they were with a high chance trained fighters. “Shit.” She cursed under her breath while she placed her backpack next to her and sitting down. She had to wait until they disappeared and then run for it.

This was nothing new to her. After what had happened on the train Ruby was constantly on the run, she had lived in Romania for a long time before she had the feeling she was observed and thus she had decided that it was better for her to go to another country. At that time the war had been over for a long time. It was not her smartest idea but ever since she lived in Russia. She had learned the language and made sure she never was in one city too long. Occasionally she got a job for a month before she left the city again. But later she became a magician. It was fun spectating other people all the while they were fooling themselves or getting fooled by her abilities. 

One of the downsides to her being on the run was that she was practically homeless. She never slept too long and was always hyper-aware of her surroundings. The times she did sleep she slept in a sitting position she had not felt a nice warm mattress in over sixty years. She was, however, aware that she could not have the luxury of that. Internally Ruby had wondered if Steve had scared her because of his anger... Just so he did not have to see her again. In the few comics she had read in her childhood he never seemed that bad even with the touch-ups of the government.

Ruby tried not to think about him too much. It ached in her chest whenever she did. She leaned her head against the cold wall, sighed and stared up in the sky, hoping the remaining hours of the day would pass quickly. It was one of the warmer days so there was one problem less on her list. Normally she distracted herself with some tricks or trying to steal money – Do not judge her, she had to survive somehow. Slight of hand was her forte. But on that day she had nothing to distract her, nothing to keep her mind from wandering to that long past day.

She saw Bucky's face as he fell, heard his scream. It still hurt and that was so long ago. “72 years and I still cry about it as if it was yesterday.” she sighed wiping away the tears. First, she was shocked when she saw that after a decade and a half she did not have wrinkles. She should have slowly begun to age but it never came, she was stuck at the age of twenty. It infuriated her to no end, she had hoped that eventually she was an old lady and died and Steve Rogers would never find her. For all she knew she could have altered this reality enough that he was an old man by then. She had avoided anything that would have informed her about what Steve was doing, though, she knew at least some things from her own time but she did not know how much of it was true as most of the stories were fiction or censored by the government. And how much did she fuck up by staying and 'helping'?

…

Night finally arrived and the people on the small plaza began to head home. She decided then was the best time to not get noticed. She would just follow groups of people and hide in plain sight. Ruby pushed herself up and placed her backpack on her back before she once again stood back in the small alley. She had worked on her abilities and thought that she controlled them much better than she had 70 years ago. But not as good as she wished. She still did not really like them much.

For the last time, she wiped over her face with her sleeves and then walked down the streets. She was more than tired. There was little to no energy left in her body and even her – as she assumed - stuck-in-time-body was not immune to dark bags under her eyes that were proof of her lack of a good nights sleep. Her mind seemed to get distracted by almost anything she found, never sticking to it for long. The sun had disappeared from the sky, replaced by the moon. That and a small shop with a few TVs in the display window were the only lights.

She did not want to see the NEWS that was played on the TVs but her mind seemed to stick to it longer than she had wanted. In her eyes, the pictures were reflected. A huge building was on the screen – the UN building, she recognised it - and a few seconds later it exploded. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped open. A surveillance camera had recorded a man in front of the building. Ruby's skin turned cold. The man had long dark hair and a muzzle that looked like a tactical mask over his face, he was tall and muscly. Instead of a normal arm, his left arm was replaced by a metal arm with a red star on his upper arm. She stepped back as her eyes flickered to the text below the pictures. “UN building was destroyed while King T'Chaka of Wakanda held a speech. King T'Chaka was a victim of the explosion.” it said in Russian. She ripped her eyes off the text not really wanting to know any of this. 

In the upper right corner of the screen, a picture appeared and instantly she felt sick. She was frozen to the spot as the picture showed a man she had lost so long ago. “James Buchanan Barnes.” was the description below the picture. Her eyes welled with tears and she felt her cheeks getting colder and colder by the lack of blood under her skin.

 

“Miss Bell.” Someone behind her stated. She flinched and turned around. She stood face to face with a man she did not know. Her whole body told her to run, an alarm went off in her head and still the fear caused her to freeze. Partly that and partly the fact that she began to be tired of running, especially of strangers. If this was her end, so shall it be. “You here to kill me?” she asked curiously as he still had not moved.

“What?” he asked. “Are you here to kill me?” she asked again. The man looked genuinely confused. “Why should I kill you?” She had a feeling he was honest but the alarm in her mind never stopped. Something about this smelled fishy...

“If you are not here to kill me, what do you want? Who are you? Did Steve send you?” Her eyes never left him and her fingers were clenched to the straps of her backpack. Ruby was ready to fight or run, whatever seemed better. The man sighed. “Talk, first of all. My name is Clint Barton and yes, Steve sent me but not to kill you. We need your help and he said you might be the right person for this.” he said. To say Ruby was shocked was an understatement. Her jaw dropped open. “What?” Was now her question. “Why should you want my help? The last time I saw Steve, he wanted my head. ” she explained to him. His expression told her it was, however, urgent.

“I don't know what happened between you two but I think you can talk about it later.” he explained. “Does that have anything to do with that UN building?” she asked him, still wary. “Yes, I can give you the short form if you join us.” He said, to which she raised an eyebrow. “So you ask me to join you to help with... something... but you will not tell me what exactly our mission is?” He opened his mouth and closed it again but his face was still carefully blank. “Heard of those accords?” he finally asked. “No.” She said. He looked confused as for the past days that was all you heard of. “Uh... Well, the short form is that the Avengers should be... supervised. We, as the government puts it, have decided too many things of our own. The accords are supposed to change that. Anyhow, Steve does not like this and his old friend was framed by a guy called Zemo, some doctor. This doctor is currently on his way to Siberia where he wants to wake up winter soldiers from their sleep.” At her confused gaze, he explained: “Soldiers with a serum that makes them strong, worse than any other assassin even before they got the serum, brainwashed to obey any command.” He paused a moment so Ruby could process the information. The first thing that came to her mind: “How on earth did you find me?” She knew she sucked when it came to hiding (She had ever since she played hide and seek in kindergarten and elementary school.) but she had used different names never stayed too long in one city and sometimes even disguised herself.

“S.H.I.E.L.D. Never lost you.” was his simple answer. Too scared to ask yet another question that seemingly every first grader knew the answer to (and she had a feeling she had read about SHIELD in one of the comics) she stayed silent. “Will you help?” he asked then. “Deadly super assassins that apparently are... super deadly. Sure, sounds like fun.” she said sarcastically. But she thought about it glancing to the TV that still showed Bucky's face. She had to help him. She owed him that much, owed Steve that much. “Where does the party start?”

…

A few minutes later they climbed into a white van that was parked down the road. Inside a woman waited for Barton's return. She had long brown hair and was wearing rather casual clothes, just as Barton did. Weird choice for a battle but Ruby did not wear anything fitting for a battle either. The van had three front seats so she sat at the window next to the friendly looking woman while Barton slid into the driver's seat. “Hi.” Ruby said smiling shyly. Why exactly had she thought this was a good idea again? Oh right because apparently some sort of intelligence had observed her the whole time and Steve and Bucky were involved. “Hi, I'm Wanda.” The woman introduced herself and successfully got Ruby out of her thoughts.

“I'm Ruby, nice to meet you.” it was weird for her to have a conversation with someone who was not about to be fooled by her slight of hand. But it felt good, Ruby thought. Barton started the car and began to drive out of the city. “Where are we going?” She asked curiously. “First airport and then Germany.” He said as casually as if she had asked what they would get as breakfast and he would have answered eggs and bacon. “Germany?” She asked a bit louder than intended to which Wanda put a finger over her mouth and pointed somewhere behind her. “We have someone sleeping in there.” She explained with a thick accent Ruby would place to Romania or maybe Sokovia.

Ruby nodded and apologised and repeated, much quieter this time. “Germany? Why Germany?” Barton sighed. “Because the rest of our team is in Leipzig at the moment.” Even though that did not really satisfy her she kept quiet and watched the streetlights approaching and vanishing as fast as they had come. She assumed that they would reach Leipzig within the next five hours. And then? What would wait for her? Unconsciously she grabbed the dog tags that sat quietly on her sternum.

~flashback~

“Excited?” The man next to her asked as she fumbled with her new combat gear. “Nervous.” She corrected. “No need to be nervous. You trained hard enough to do this.” She looked up at Bucky who smiled at her gently. “I hope no one gets hurt.” She mumbled looking back in the mirror.

Bucky then took off his dog tags and turned the blonde towards him. He took her dog tags and replaced them with his. “What-” She asked but he interrupted her. “It's a promise. No one will get hurt and when we get back to Brooklyn we swap again.” 

A warmth in her heart made her smile.

~end of flashback~

…

It took them a little less than five hours to land in Germany but they had to prepare for a fight. Steve had told Barton that they would meet them around twelve so they had enough time to do just that. Prepare. Ruby had shuffled through her bag for a minute only to realise that all she had was more than useless. She had another hoodie and some underwear in that bag and another pair of black jeans but that was about it. She just left it in the van deciding it was better that way.

While Barton was shuffling around in the back of the car Wanda and Ruby stood beside the car. They were in the car park of the airport they would meet Steve in and slowly but surely Ruby's nerves were beginning to get to her. She had not slept much not feeling very comfortable next to total strangers that she did not know. Even that they would bring her to Steve was no reassurance as he – as far as Ruby was concerned – still wanted to kill her. Wanda seemed to notice her unease and placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder. “Everything will be just fine.” 

She small smile of the Sokovian eased Ruby's nervousness at least to some amount. “I don't even have a weapon. Heck, I cannot fight in a hoodie versus very real and very deadly super assassins!” she breathed out but Wanda just chuckled at her. “You don't have to fight in casual clothes. We have some gear for you, just relax a bit until Steve arrives.” Ruby had not expected that and just looked at the other woman. 

“I am sure I cannot sleep.” Ruby sighed and just sat down right there and then. Wanda sat down next to her. “I could help with that if you want.” she offered but Ruby shook her head. “I am sure you can but... I would not be comfortable with that.” She took a deep breath and leaned her head against the cool exterior of the van. “I just don't know you guys enough and if I am honest I don't know what I am doing here. I think the only reason was to see Buck again. I thought he was dead.” 

“You were friends?” Wanda asked looking at her curiously with her green eyes. “Yes, I... I didn't have any friends then except for Steve and Bucky.” That Wanda had not asked why she did not look like she was about to fall apart into a pile of ashes, Ruby assumed that someone had told her about Ruby's abilities. Did SHIELD know more than even Ruby?

They casually talked a while about anything that came to their minds as long as it did not include Ruby's past. She did not like to talk about that. Ever. Their conversation was interrupted by Barton who walked around the van again and looked down at the two women on the concrete floor next to the passenger door.

They looked up to him and waited for him to speak, so he did. “I got some gear for you in the van, hope it fits. Steve said you liked knives?” He asked. Ruby's jaw dropped. She had never thought that Steve would remember that. Bucky, if he still got his brain sorted, yes. But Steve? She was trained in a lot of weapons, mostly handguns and knives and she soon found out that she preferred latter.

“Yeah, got used to them more than any other weapon.” she mumbled while standing up and brushing off dirt off her jeans. Wanda did the same. “Alright I got some knives for you and a small blaster for your wrist to stun anyone you hit.” he explained. “You both should get some rest though. Preferably inside the car. Don't want any of you two catch a cold.” He told them. Ruby trusted Wanda enough to help her sleep for at least a few hours before Steve and Bucky would finally arrive.

...


	6. Chapter 6

Ruby was surrounded by cold, it was dark but that was not her problem. She hated the cold. Why did it always had to be cold? She could feel the metal beneath her bare skin while she laid on the table she knew so well. She forced open her eyes but they seemed to be glued shut. Only after a few tries, she managed to open them.  
  
The young woman was in a small room, the walls were made of concrete. She did not recognise the room, though, but she recognised the small tables next to her with different tools on them. Syringes, scalpels and saws. She wished she had not opened her eyes as she felt the panic rise. What was about to happen?  
  
A man entered the room but did not acknowledge her or if he did he did not show any sign of it. After the man, a few nurses entered the room. Ruby wanted to get away but her whole body was stunned, she had been sedated. Her voice betrayed her as she could not speak.  
  
The only thing she could do was fix her blue eyes on the man and followed him with her panicked glare. He took one of the syringes and without a warning pressed it against Ruby's arm. He probably renewed the sedative. But she did not fall asleep only the numbness of her body remained. What was that?  
  
When he took the scalpel and placed it on her back she suddenly realised she was lying on her stomach, why had she not realised that? Was that one of those strange dreams where she could not remember all of it but everything just happens? She felt sick. But all the thoughts left her mind when the pain shot through her whole body when the scalpel cut her skin like it was butter.  
  
She wanted to scream but there was no noise leaving her whatsoever.  
  
…  
  
Ruby ripped open her eyes and the only thing she saw was the small space she was in, she kicked anything and somehow got hold the handle of the door next to her. She pushed her body against the door and dropped out of the van like a sack of potatoes. She breathed heavily and still remembered her dream. The feeling of the knife on her back how it traced where her bones were located. Before she could control it she found herself on the roof of the car park she was in since Barton and Wanda had brought her there. She felt sick and just a moment later she emptied her stomach right there and then.  
  
She returned to the van just minutes later after cleaning her mouth with the sleeve of her hoodie she then had thrown away into the nearest bin. Wanda who had been next to her while they both tried to sleep waited for her next to the van with a concerned look on her face her brows furrowed. “You should be careful with this grim expression, it causes wrinkles.” Ruby said but instead of moving back to the van she went to the 'windows' of the car park. They were just giant squares cut out of the concrete with metal pipes in front of them to prevent people from falling down six floors to their death.  
  
“Do you want to talk about it?” Wanda asked standing next to Ruby who was now sitting on what was the closest to a windowsill. “No... not really. I.. actually don't even really know what I saw in my dream.” Ruby told her. Wanda did not know anything about her past as Ruby had not really said much to anyone about it except to Steve and Bucky but she had a vague idea that it had to be something horrible. Wanda had felt Ruby's pain while she was asleep and had tried to help her but the memory in Ruby's mind had been too strong.  
  
Ruby for her part had seen those pictures for the first time in her life. She assumed that it was just part of her fantasy but somewhere deep inside her she was afraid that there was more to it. That there were more things that she just could not remember.  
  
Wanda somehow felt that the other woman just wanted to be alone and left after a few minutes. Ruby was grateful for that as she could just spend some time staring at anything that caught her eye. It was barely eight A.M. and there were more than enough hours to somehow relax and deal with the memory of yet another of her normally rare nightmares.  
  
…  
  
Barton had left her alone for another hour but had asked Wanda about the dream. The young Sokovian could not give him explicit information, only that it had been really bad stuff. Even the man in the rear of the van had woken up to Ruby's scream she did not realise had left her body.  
  
“Keep an eye on her, will you?” Barton asked Wanda to which she nodded. She liked Ruby and was more than happy to help her. Barton left her next to the van and approached Ruby who was still staring at birds and people outside of the building. “Now that you are awake you could try these on if they don't fit we have to find an alternative before Steve arrives.” he explained handing her a fresh black shirt, a sports bra (Wanda had insisted it was important) a long-sleeved shirt and cargo pants. He was still holding another thing in his left hand but Ruby could not really see what it was.  
  
She changed into the clothes in a restroom she had found in the airport. Even though she did not like public restrooms she was more than happy to see it was clean and did not smell too bad. She did not waste time with walking back so she just appeared next to the van with her new clothes on and her old ones (that had holes in them anyway and were dirty and if she was honest they smelled horrible) were somewhere in a bin.  
  
“They fit.” She said to which Barton flinched and almost punched her. “Where did you come from?” he asked stopping his fist before it hit her. “Brooklyn.” she said sarcastically. Barton rolled his eyes and looked at her. The clothes fitted perfectly. “Okay good so we don't need any extra clothes. The rest of the gear is in the back of the car but there is no need to put it on now.” Ruby nodded to that and went back to her spot at the window.  
  
“Nothing of those nightmares are real.” she told herself again. Each second felt like an eternity to her.  
  
…  
  
She had just thought about everything she had missed in the past 70 years when a blue Volkswagen beetle had parked a few feet away. Ruby lifted her eyes to see if the people inside the car were the people they waited for or just some German citizens. Her heart stopped when she recognised the man driving the car. Blonde hair, muscular and tall. Steve. Then she remembered her fear and shot up from her sitting position not quite sure what to do. She just stood there scared and staring wide-eyed.  
  
On the other side of the car, another man got out. He was also tall had nice dark skin and looked somehow very grim. She got mixed signals from that guy. Especially because she did not know him. But when the last man got out of the car she just could not bare her feelings any more, she felt her heart hammering against her ribs and tears threaten to form in her eyes. She shook her head quickly, closed her mouth she had not noticed dropped open and watched the scene from behind the van. Just in case.  
  
Barton greeted Steve first, Wanda stood some feet behind him. “Cap.” he said to Steve. “You know I wouldn't have called if I had any other choice.” Steve said then. “Hey man, you're doing me a favour. Besides, I owe a debt.” Ruby had no clue what exactly that meant but they just continued to talk. “Thanks for having my back.” She was not sure if Steve said that to Wanda or to Barton but Wanda answered so she assumed it was for her. “It was time to get off my ass.” Ruby liked that woman.  
  
Then Steve talked to Barton again. “How about our other recruits?” Ruby felt her heartbeat quicken again and her cheeks burning but it was Lang's turn first so she had another moment to cool down. She was nervous and so she began to play with the dog tags again. “He's rarin' to go. Had to put a little coffee in him, but... he should be good.” Barton explained turning around and sliding open the door with a bang. Ruby did not see Lang but he probably jolted awake and she could not suppress a small chuckle. No one heard her.  
  
“What time zone is this?” The sleepy man asked but she could not see him. The only persons she saw were the back of Wanda, Steve, the unknown man and Bucky... Her eyes were fixed on Bucky and a mixture of relieve and fear spread in her stomach. Weird enough she was happy he was alive but her only thought was that now she would have to see him die again.. Someday. “Come on. Come on.” she heard Barton say and in the corner of her eye she saw how Barton pushed Lang forward.  
  
Lang began to shake his hand - and began was the right word as he just did not stop to shake Steve's hand even though it began to be awkward. Ruby could not care less she was still distracted by Bucky. “Captain America.” He sounded really amazed. “Mr Lang.” Steve answered with a short nod.  
  
“It's an honour.” Ruby could practically smell his grin while he talked. “I'm shaking your hand too long. Wow! This is awesome! Captain America.” he rambled before turning to Wanda and saying “I know you, too. You're great!” Then he turned back around and feels Steve's shoulders and whispered a "jeez" to which Ruby snorted louder than anticipated as all the eyes turned to her. Her laughter died faster than it had come and she felt her heart sink into her stomach.  
  
Then she stepped out from behind the van, her gaze fixed to the ground but occasionally switching the target and looked up to Steve. “Our other recruit.” Barton said with a slight smile on his lips. She could see Steve swallow and that seeing her again was somewhat uncomfortable for him. “Hey.” She said barely audible. “Ruby.” Steve nodded but after his initial shock, he began to smile. The smile shocked Ruby a bit and her gaze flew to Bucky who just looked at her confused. As if he had said a word too many times and it's meaning slipped off his mind. He did not remember her.  
  
“I'm happy you will join us.” Steve then said after a moment of awkward silence. Why he was happy to see her did not make any sense to her. The last time they saw each other was somewhere on a snowy mountain somewhere in Switzerland and she had just caused his best friend's death. She decided to keep quiet. This was neither the time nor the place to remind him of that. So she nodded with a stern expression. Bucky's gaze, as she noticed, was fixed on her dog tags and she was quick to hide them underneath her long sleeved shirt.  
  
“So they tell you what we're up against?” Steve asked both Lang and Ruby. “Something about some... psycho-assassins?” Lang asked looking at Ruby for confirmation but she had just as much knowledge about that as he did. She nodded anyway. “We're outside the law on this one. So, if you come with us, you're wanted people.” he explained. “Too bad I suck at hiding.” Ruby commented gaining questioning gazes by the other people. “Nothing.” she shook her head and let them keep talking. “Yeah, well, what else is new?” Lang asked.  
  
Bucky who was eyeing the surroundings carefully, especially the two new members of their small team, said: “We should get moving.” Barton nodded. “We got a chopper lined up.” The conversation was interrupted by an announcement.  
  
“Dies ist eine Notsituation. Alle Passagiere müssen den Flughafen sofort evakuieren. (This is an emergency. All passengers must evacuate the airport immediately.” Ruby let out a small Russian curse she hoped no one had heard or understood. “They're evacuating the airport.” Bucky explained. “Stark.” the stranger said to which Ruby and Lang asked. “Stark?” with furrowed brows. Steve just commanded them to suit up.  
  
…  
  
Ruby picked up a reinforced black army jacket Barton had held in his hand earlier while he gave her the other clothes. There were two smaller belts attached to it with... bombs. Ruby inspected them and even though she did not know the model she identified them as smoke bombs. They might come in handy. She saw a stack of eight knives next to where the jacket had been and picked up one after the other and put them in the respective slots. Four on her jacket two on her cargo pants and one in each of her combat boots (Even though they were not meant to be placed in her boots.)  
  
Someone stepped next to her. It was the blonde super soldier. Their blue eyes met and a strange silence fell between them. “I'm sorry.” Both began to which both then said. “Why?” Ruby shook her head and held up her right hand. “I'm sorry what happened in the past, Steve.” He nodded agreeing. “I'm sorry you were on the run for that long because I was an idiot back then. I... Before this-” he meant the situation they were in. “turns to shit... I wanted to apologise. I meant to do it much earlier but every time I thought I could do it... I never did.” Ruby's heart felt warmer at that. She felt like she had one of her friends back, like he was never gone in the first place.  
  
“It's okay. I understand what you felt all those years ago. You lost your best friend..” she murmured with a sad smile. They once again stood there, awkwardly. “Anyway... Thank you for helping.” he said. One of the reasons Steve had avoided her in the past had been because he was afraid to lose her or Bucky. Ruby knew it because Bucky had told her. But that he asked her for help was also because he never stopped to trust her. She hugged him which stunned him for a moment and she was just as shocked so she let him go fairly quickly again. Do not judge her. She was alone for 70 years, let her be awkward.  
  
“You should get ready too.” she pointed out looking at the white T-Shirt he wore. “Yeah... I...” He sighed, looked down at himself and realised there was neither the time for a much longer talk nor any idea what he was supposed to say from there on then he just walked away. Ruby smirked. Partly because she had missed the human interaction and partly because she had missed Steve's awkwardness. Then she caught Bucky's eye. He had changed into black combat gear already and looked at her with a confused expression. It hurt her to know he could not remember. She sighed and shook her head. There were more important things. At least she had Steve back. She could worry about getting her drinking buddy/ coach / friend's memory back later.  
  
She felt like it was better for him not to know that it had been her fault he almost died and probably lost that arm. Who knew what else had happened to him that was caused by her inability to control the stupid powers she never wished for. She averted her gaze and wished to just disappear. What happened and when she noticed she just groaned at the irony of her body.

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you might have already noticed I'm trying to get through the events of civil war rather quickly as the story is quite dark up until now. (Civil war might have been a bad choice to start the story then but.. well..) Soo... yea most events are described roughly. Sorry for that c: 
> 
> Enjoy !
> 
> (I will be updating whenever I feel like it xD I just can't wait a week to updated qq)

The stranger (who had introduced himself to Ruby as Sam Wilson aka the Falcon), Bucky and Ruby stood in the terminal waiting for Sam's drone (He called it redwing and Ruby had no clue what that was so she just stuck to drone) to find the quinjet they wanted to use to leave. Originally they wanted to use a chopper but Steve had already assumed that Stark would have something up his sleeve to bind them to the ground. So they split up to find their opponents jet.

"Why does that take so long." Ruby complained and gained one of Bucky's confused gazes and Sam's annoyed one. “The airport is bigger than I thought.” she then murmured. She was looking around at signs when suddenly Sam spoke up. “Got it.” He pressed one hand against his ear and began to speak. “We found it. Their Quinjet's in hangar five, north runway.” The trio looks at each other quickly then Bucky said: “Okay, let's go.”

The group began to run towards the jet when on their left some blue and red figure appeared and crawled on windows. Ruby knew that that was spider-man. She had read about him in a comic and did not like him much. He talked too much and she never liked spiders. Though his abilities always fascinated her and he was probably much better than in the comics. “I hate spiders.” she murmured anyway while Bucky asked. “What the hell is that?” Sam just looked angry and spoke through gritted teeth. “Everyone's got a gimmick now.”

That was when suddenly spider-man swung through the glass wall and kicked Sam who then flew backwards. Bucky threw a punch at the attacker who caught it easily. “You have a metal arm? That is awesome, dude!” the boy said and Ruby was too confused to react but instead, Sam reacted by hitting him and taking him away from the two confused ex-soldiers. (Technically Ruby was never a soldier but her title had been soldier.)

Instead of wasting time Bucky picked up some metal plate and threw it. The spider-boy caught it mid-air and threw it back. “Hey Buddy, I think you lost this!” he told him. Ruby had just taken Bucky's arm and teleported both of them behind a wall to avoid being hit by the metal plate. Meanwhile, Sam regained his posture and kicked the boy off the beam he was sitting on. One of the webs hit Sam's wing pack and he crashed to the floor where the spider-boy took his opportunity and webbed his opponent's wrist to the balcony railing. 

“Those wings carbon fibre?” the boy asked interestedly. “Is this stuff coming out of you?” Sam asked. Ruby and Bucky were running to where Sam and the boy were as fast as they could. “That would explain the rigidity-flexibility ratio, which, gotta say, that's awesome, man.” Sam looked more than confused and annoyed. “I don't know if you've been in a fight before but there's usually not this much talking.” the boy only replied to that: “Alright, sorry, my bad.” and swung down from his advantage point but just in time Bucky appeared in front of Sam and both men crashed down to the next floor where they ended up webbed to the floor.

“Guys, look. I'd love to keep this up but I've only got one job here today and I gotta impress Mr. Stark, so, I'm really sorry.” Ruby had enough of his talking she was frustrated with that guy. She threw one of her knives distracting him long enough for him not to notice the drone – redwing – appearing behind him and catching him. It flew out the window dragging him along with it. She appeared next to where the knife had fallen to the floor and then between Bucky and Sam. They looked miserable, to say the least. 

“You couldn't have done that earlier?” Bucky asked. “I hate you.” Sam simply replied and Ruby just laughed at the two of them cutting the webs and freeing them. “You two are adorable in a pack.” she said gaining more annoyed looks which only caused her to chuckle more.

The three of them picked up their run again towards the hangar where the quinjet was supposed to be. They just stepped outside of the building when they saw Steve, Lang, Barton and Wanda also running towards hangar five. In the middle of the tarmac, however, they were stopped by a yellow laser slicing right through the black asphalt as if it was nothing. Ruby's eyes widened and when she stopped running Sam ran right into her gaining a death glare. 

She turned her head back to where the laser was and saw yet another blue and red thing hovering above them. “Who's that?” she asked in a low whisper while that thing and Steve were having a short staring battle. “That's Vision.” Sam whispered back. Ruby, still not satisfied by that answer only answered “Ah, but-” But she was cut off by Vision himself.

“Captain Rogers. I know you believe what you're doing is right. But for the collective good, you must surrender now.” The being said and Ruby was confused. Those guys were defending super soldiers that were literally a threat to the whole world. What was wrong with them? 

“What do we do, Cap?” Sam asked to her left. It took him a moment to answer but then he said. “We fight.” apparently the other team had the same thought as both teams were striding towards each other. Each person had a grim expression on their faces but not only was it grim. Ruby saw hurt in their faces. They knew each other and had to fight their friends. None of them wanted to fight that day and all of their faces reflected the pain they felt facing the other half of their family. Only Ruby's face showed none of the pain as the only family she had were Bucky and Steve. And she fought for them.

Suddenly everyone began to sprint and Ruby too picked up speed gripping her knife as tight as she could. She was not planning on using its sharp side but the dull side of it. The blaster with the stunning bullets was attached to her left wrist and she hoped she would not forget to use it as she was not used to having a weapon around her wrist.

Stark was the first one to punch but Steve just blocked the blow with his shield. Clint shot an arrow at Vision, War Machine chose Sam as an enemy and Bucky was attacked by Black Panther. Clint switched his target and hit Stark with an explosive arrow. Ruby disappeared and reappeared anywhere around the fights kicked the Panther or Stark who was once again attacking Steve. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a red-haired woman who wanted to kick Barton but stopped just inches away from his face as a red cloud was around her foot holding her in place.

Ruby took the opportunity and appeared next to the red-haired woman and kicked the woman strong enough to send her flying into a few crates. She felt her energy drain but that did not stop her to appear next to the Panther and Bucky, kicking the Panther and making him tumble backwards. Bucky followed up with a mighty kick of his own sending yet another of their opponents flying into a crate. “You okay?” he asked Ruby sensing her tiredness. She shook her head and clasped her ribs. She had to pick up workout after all that was over she thought. “No... Yeah, I'm fine.” She said straightening up.

The fight was not that long but tiring. Her next enemy was Stark who had the glorious idea to join War Machine chasing Sam. Ruby did not like that idea and just teleported herself on his back piercing his armour with a knife making him flinch and trying to shake her off. He hit a blow to her cheek and temple and when she was still clinging to his back and he was getting frustrated he hit her with his repulsor right on her right side. She gasped and let out a scream falling off his back and meeting the crates herself.

Heavily breathing through the steady pain coming from her right side she rolled off the crates clasping where he had hit her. The touch hurt so she flinched away from it only to see blood on her finger where it hat grazed the wound. It somehow smelt weird like burnt flesh and she did not dare to look down. She just breathed but every breath hurt.

“We gotta go. That guy's probably in Siberia by now.” she heard Bucky over her earpiece. “We gotta draw out the flyers. I'll take Vision. You get to the jet.” Steve replied but Ruby protested. “Steve you have to stick together. There is no -” she screwed up her face with pain. “No way to defeat assassins with the serum without your help.” Surprisingly it was Sam who spoke next. “Ruby's right! You get to the jet! Both of you!” he paused shortly and Ruby saw why. He was chased by War Machine. “The rest of us aren't getting out of here.” he continued.

“As much as I hate to admit it, if we're gonna win this one, some of us might have to lose it.” Barton said. “This isn't the real fight, Steve.” Ruby agreed to that but she was in no condition to fight any further. She had used too much energy in the fight her legs gave in and the wound on her side was not helping either. She might be able to teleport once or twice at max.

The next thing she saw was that Lang was suddenly huge. Not like a normal man. He was enormous. He was taller than the plane that was next to him probably twice as tall. She saw Bucky and Steve run towards the hangar where the quinjet waited for them and she decided that she had to fight as much as she could. No matter the cost.

The spider-boy was swinging around the giant Lang and so she decided to teleport to him and just teleport him back to the terminal before disappearing again. Her best option was to split them as much as she could. Her side ached but she bit through it and engaged into a fight with the panther, Barton joined her and soon she found herself trying to get Stark and War Machine off Sam again. Spider-boy had made his way back into the battle and was working on Lang again when Ruby heard him. “Something just flew in me!” 

She looked up and saw Vision appearing behind Lang firing at the control tower next to the hangar. Ruby did not think about it when she suddenly appeared next to Bucky and Steve, above them the tower fell down and was stopped by a red mist. Wanda. She loved that woman. But she knew she could not hold it for long and so the trio disappeared and reappeared inside the hangar while behind them the tower crashed to the ground.

Ruby let out a sigh of relieve. Too early as the red-haired woman stood in front of them expecting them. “You're not gonna stop.” Ruby furrowed her brows in frustration her breath came heavy and uneven. She was about to collapse with all the energy she had used. “You know I can't.” Steve said and Bucky noticed Ruby's state and steadied her not averting his gaze from the woman in front of them.

She had a similar wristband to Ruby's and Ruby internally cursed that she had forgotten to use it but that was not as important as the woman who was pointing her weapon at them at the moment. She was the only thing keeping them from getting to the quinjet. From getting some rest. “I'm gonna regret this.” she said and fired a blast but it flew in between Steve and Ruby and hit something behind them. “Go.” she told them and they did not waste another second staring at their new ally.

They got into the jet and Bucky laid Ruby on a row of seats on the side of the jet before checking her health status. She saw how her vision got darker with each breath and her body shook violently. “I hate sport.” She murmured and just gave in to the desire to sleep. Ruby closed her eyes but was shook awake a second later. “Don't fall asleep, okay? You need to stay awake.” Bucky said eyeing the wound on her side. The quinjet roared to live and Ruby only felt how they ascended into the air. 

Bucky helped her out of the jacket and lifted the long-sleeved shirt and the T-Shirt to get a look at the wound before running off and getting something Ruby could by god not recall what it was. She assumed it was tissue and sanitizer. But then she could not stay awake a second longer and fell asleep.

…

She fell into a black hole her body numb and cold. Her surroundings were non-existent and there was no sound. She felt so lost.

…


	8. Chapter 8

The only thing Ruby was aware of was the constant whir of the engines of the jet she was still lying in. She knew she had only slept for an hour. Slowly she opened her eyes and took a deep breath that stung on her right side where the wound was. She was still lying on the row of seats on the wall and could not move too much. She could move her legs and her arms but Bucky had somehow managed to secure her to the spot with seatbelts. Not to happy with being glued to the spot she tried to open them but they were out of her reach.  
  
Then she looked up to where Steve and Bucky sat next to each other in the pilot and co-pilot seats both were silent and the mood in the jet was horrible. “Hey, guys.” She said to get their attention as she wanted one of them to free her. Bucky turned to look at her. First, he looked confused but then the corner of his lips lifted into a vague smile. “Oh good, you're up.” He said. Ruby huffed. “Up is.. well it depends on how you define it. I can't get up because of those belts.” she complained and pointed at the black belts slung around her. “Good, you should rest anyway.” He smirked and just for a moment she felt like she talked to the Bucky from 1943.  
  
She shook her head and closed her mouth. Then she sighed which caused her side to ache again. “Stop moving.” Bucky instructed her. “What, am I supposed to stop breathing?” She asked. Silence fell over them once more and it was one of the uncomfortable sorts. She should just have kept quiet, she thought. “Wanna hear a joke?” She tried to lift the mood. All of them knew she was better in playing hide and seek than telling jokes and the situation they were in did not exactly seem like the best to tell a joke so neither of the men replied. She told them the joke anyway. “What does a nut sound like when it sneezes?” she asked.  
  
For a moment Steve and Bucky shared a confused and concerned look. Maybe she had hit her head in the battle. Steve turned his attention back to flying and Bucky looked at her. “Uhh... I... don't know?” She then grinned. “Cashew.” Silence. “Get it... Because hatshu and cashew, the nut...” she explained but no one laughed.  
  
“That's all you got? Steve, didn't you teach her proper jokes while I was away?” He asked forgetting for a moment that she had not talked to Steve for over 70 years. Ruby could see the guilt in Steve's eyes as he glanced at her for a short moment. “Don't blame him. I ran away from him. We were playing hide and seek and as the good big brother he is he pretended to not find me and let me have my victory. Except he did find me and.. Damn I lost hide and seek...” She rambled and confused herself and Bucky chuckled a bit at that. “She hit her head in the battle...” Bucky said in a low voice so only Steve could hear.  
  
“One of you care to join me here? If I keep looking up to you guys my neck's gonna be stuck in that position.” She told them. Bucky looked at Steve, who nodded and then got up to sit down next to her head. Her arms laid lazily on her stomach and her gaze was now fixed to the metal plates above her. Bucky wondered why he had bothered to join her when she did not look at him. But in reality, Ruby just wanted to talk to him for a moment without Steve listening to all of it.  
  
“Hey, Buck,” she began and actually looked at him. Their blue eyes met and she continued. “Do you.. do you remember me?” She asked quietly. If she was honest she did not want to know. The thought that the answer might be a no with a cold voice she imagined him to have while saying the word ached her heart. And she had seen his expression when he saw her in the car park. Confusion was written on his face.  
  
He did not like that question, mostly because it concerned his memory and people that he knew from his past. Steve had told him a bit more after she fell asleep. “Not at first. I mean... it felt like I know you but every time I tried to remember my head felt like it was about to explode. But...” he paused averting his gaze. “But..?” She urged him to keep talking. “When I nursed your wound I noticed your dog tags.” He nodded at the chain that sat neatly on her sternum. She was fast to clasp them in between her cold fingers and hide them underneath her shirt as if it was her most valuable treasure. “The name says James Buchanan Barnes... Why.. why do you have my dog tags? I remember bits of talking to you and teaching you how to fight but I can't remember the tags... I thought I had lost them the day I fell off that train.” Then he looked at her again.  
  
Her eyes were glassy and her throat felt very tight. “I.. err.. you... The.. the day of our first mission... I was scared that one of the howling commandos would get hurt... That you would get hurt or...” She cut off her stuttering. She wanted him to remember but she did not want to tell him a story he could potentially remember on his own eventually. But it was important that he knew. “We traded our dog tags.. as a sort of promise. When we would have gone back to Brooklyn we would have swapped back but that never happened..” She wanted to add a 'because of my stupidity' but knew that there was no sense in making this situation worse. She did not want him to feel pity for her.  
  
Tears had begun to roll down her skin and to her distaste had dropped into her ear as she still looked up. She wiped them away with the sleeve of her shirt and then met Bucky's gaze. “It's okay if you don't remember, you know? I'm just glad I got you back. Both of you.” She smiled. But her heart ached anyway. It would fade eventually. They could create new memories for him if it was necessary. Bucky smiled back at her. He remembered her. Somewhere deep inside of him. There were no clear memories but her presence felt so natural and so good that he just knew that once upon a time she was very important to him.  
  
Ruby felt the tiredness return and her eyes drooped closed. The darkness consumed her again but in a much more pleasant way than before.  
  
…  
  
Bucky and Steve did not wake her up when they arrived in Siberia so she missed how Tony Stark had arrived there too and how he had tried to kill Bucky and ripped off his metal arm. It was a fight filled with emotion mostly sadness and anger. Steve wanted to protect his best friend but also did not want to lose a friend that was as important to him as Tony was. He had to decide on whose side he was and in the end, he chose Bucky. He would always choose Bucky. But that did not stop his heart from breaking at the sight of the man with the dark hair and dark eyes inside of the red and gold metal suit that trapped him.  
  
“That shield doesn't belong to you. You don't deserve it. My father made that shield!” It had stung Steve's heart to hear that. To hear Tony's hurt. He had no idea how important Howard Stark had been for Steve and to know that Howard's son, Steve's friend now hated him... It just hurt.  
  
…  
  
Letter to Tony by Steve.  
  
Tony, I'm glad you're back at the compound. I don't like the idea of you rattling around a mansion by yourself. We all need a family. The Avengers are yours, maybe more so than mine. I've been on my own since I was 18. I never really fit in anywhere, even in the army. My faith's in people, I guess. Individuals. And I'm happy to say that, for the most part, they haven't let me down. Which is why I can't let them down either. Locks can be replaced, but maybe they shouldn't. I know I hurt you, Tony. I guess I thought by not telling you about your parents I was sparing you, but I can see now that I was really sparing myself, and I'm sorry. Hopefully one day you can understand. I wish we agreed on the Accords, I really do. I know you're doing what you believe in, and that's all any of us can do. That's all any of us should...  
  
So no matter what. I promise you, if you need us, if you need me, I'll be there.  
  
…  
  
Steve stared at the latter for a long time not knowing that the small phone he had sent along with it would always be carried around with Stark. He would never forget it and never leave it for anything in the world. Because inside of him he missed his friend.  
  
…  
  
Ruby felt dizzy as she opened her eyes. The bright light above her blinded her and she jerked her head to the side and shut her eyes again. Only bit by bit she realised that neither her side nor anything else of her body hurt. She laid in a warm comfortable bed and then she slowly opened her eyes again. Her eyes scanned the room she was in. It was mostly white and there were huge windows with white curtains in front of them.  
  
She thought about just going back to sleep and let the exhaustion take over but then her mind jumped to the events at the airport and she bolted up. “Bucky!” She yelled. She left behind the comfortable warmth of the bed she had been in moments ago and rushed out of the room.  
  
Instead of her black clothing, she wore white sweatpants and a white T-Shirt. “God, how I hate this colour.” She mumbled and looked around her to see where she should go. There were no people around. Not a single one. So she just started walking at a fast pace. Her bare feet made a weird tapping noise with each step she took and the dog tags around her neck clanked against each other. The corridors seemed to be never-ending and she felt like she was in a maze rather than a hospital.  
  
For a thousandths time she turned around a corner but this time she was not met with yet another corridor but with a huge room that looked like a lab. There were some people and she recognised two of them right in the middle of the room. She stopped dead in her tracks. No, no, no. This cannot be happening. She thought when she saw Bucky sleeping deeply in a glass cylinder. “Bucky!” she screamed running towards the cylinder. Why?  
  
Steve caught her before she could punch the glass of the tank. He held her firm while she was struggling and fighting and crying. “Get him out of there, Steve! Get him out! You can't let them do that! You just can't!” she shouted and punched Steve but she was sure that he barely felt it.  
  
Bucky was frozen in front of her eyes. He was so close and yet so far...  
  
“Ruby, calm down..” Steve murmured the sadness evident in his low voice. Ruby noticed and stopped struggling only occasional sobs escaping her lips. Steve still hold her tight, though. “It was his decision.” He explained. Ruby did not want to believe that but she had no other choice. She trusted Steve that he would free Bucky if some scientist froze him against his will. “He didn't even say goodbye.” Ruby breathed. “When will he wake up again?” she asked.  
  
“I don't know..” he sighed. “I don't know..” Both their gazes were on Bucky's sleeping form despair carved into their expressions. They missed their friend.  
  
Steve had led her to a small cafeteria that was empty except for the two of them. Ruby had pulled up her legs to her chest and hugged them, resting her chin on her knees while Steve sat on a chair opposite her. He told her about Tony who had appeared and that the soldiers were all killed by the guy called Zemo who had framed Bucky. He told her about the video that showed Bucky killing Tony's parents and how Tony had been disappointed that Steve had kept this secret. He told her about the fight.  
“But... Bucky had no other choice but to.. obey his commands..” The words left a bitter taste in her mouth.  
  
Steve nodded. “I think the past days... The fight... The video and... my lie... It was too much for him. I understand him. He is.. was.. my friend nonetheless.”  
  
They talked for hours. Mostly about the time shortly after she had appeared in 1943 on that Hydra base. But they only talked about the pleasant memories. Like the time she challenged the two men to a drinking duel, not knowing that both of them could not get drunk (To Bucky's defence he did not know at that time either.) and she ended up with a hangover and they had to take care of her the next day.  
  
“You ever figured out what had happened before you got taken by Hydra?” Steve asked after a moment of silence. Of course, she knew, but there was no way on earth she would ever tell anybody. It was too dangerous. “No... I never went back. The first few months after Bucky's fall I was busy trying to find him. God, I've spent hours freezing off my fingers and limbs and wandering around that stupid mountain. But I never looked for my family. Or anyone else. After I gave up I just did not want to know about anything that was happening in the world.” she explained.  
  
She sighed after another moment of silence. “What do we do now?” Steve looked just as lost as her. “King T'Challa offered to give us missions, to have a small team of people.” Ruby knew he offered her to join him doing just that. “What about Sam? You think he will join?” She instead asked but she already knew that he would. Steve nodded. “I have to get him out of that prison first, though.”  
  
“Then let's go.” She said. They may not be welcomed by the Avengers but they could help the world from the shadows. And they would help.

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt like I had to update again. I don't know if anyone's reading it but I really have a lot of fun to write this fic xD
> 
> The chapter is the longest so far and it's the beginning of my own plot for this story which is why I think this is where the story really starts.
> 
> Have fun reading ^-^

"I walked across.. an empty land... I knew the pathway like the back of my hand... I felt the earth beneath my feet... Sat by the river and it made me complete.." Ruby sat cross-legged next to the cryo chamber that held Bucky. Her headphones played the melody of "Somewhere only we know" by Lily Allen while she sang the lyrics. It was simple moments like these that helped her get through the days. When she did not practice her fighting skills she sat next to the sleeping Bucky. Creepy right? She knew it was.

“Oh simple thing, where have you gone?... I'm getting tired and I need someone to rely on...” She hummed and placed her head on the metal table in front of her. She rarely slept and when she did not for long. Not that she had nightmares at least not as often as one might think with the number of nights she spent just sitting there in the lab. She was used to being cold and not getting enough sleep and especially not having a bed. The feeling of comfort was simply too foreign for her.

She brushed off the headphones that hang loosely around her neck and she sighed. “Oh, simple thing..” She murmured. Where did the simple life go? It had been a month since the events of the Sokovia Accords and the fight at the airport. Steve was out and about working on one mission after the other. Ruby had decided that she had to work on her physical fitness first before she worked on anything else. The panic and the memories of her past when she had failed to use her abilities properly had vanished all her motivation she had felt when Steve had first proposed the idea of their team helping with missions wherever they could.

“Miss Bell.” Someone said and Ruby jumped up from her spot next to the glass cylinder. “King T'Challa! Your Majesty!” She said and quickly looked to the ground. “You spend a lot of time in here, don't you?” He asked smiling, nodding at the blankets that laid on the floor. Ruby's cheeks heated up a little and she looked at the King a bit sheepish. “I... Want to make sure he's... That he's fine.” She stuttered. “Oh, don't worry our best scientist take care of him.” He smiled at her again.

She suddenly felt stupid, he thought she did not trust them. “That's.. that's not what I meant!” She was quick to say. “I just.. I meant I come here to talk to him.. I feel like he is aware of everything going on out here and that he feels alone but...” She did not talk any further, just stared at her frozen friend. She talked a lot to him. He's great at listening... Oh, the irony...

“I am sure he would appreciate that.” The King nodded. Ruby smiled a little at that. “May I ask why the King visits at an hour like this?” She asked. In actuality, she had not looked at the clock for hours, maybe days. She just knew it was very late, she guessed around eleven p.m. “I was informed I would find you here.” He told her and she lifted her left eyebrow (as she could not lift her right alone which infuriated her.) “Mister Rogers tried to call you but as I see you did not want to be in touch.” He nodded at the small table on which her phone lay the battery next to it. She looked somewhat guilty. “Well, thank you for telling me, I will call him back right away.”

T'Challa chuckled. “No you won't, so let me tell you that he asks if you want to join him and his team on a smaller mission.” Ruby's cheeks were aflame. How did he know her so well? That guy was a god damned wizard... “What's it about?” She asked swallowing her embarrassment. “Just accompanying a celebrity to an event. But since it is a bigger area that has to be cleared Captain Rogers would like to be on the save side.” He explained. “Shouldn't have asked me then.” She grumbled thinking about the first week in Wakanda and how she had accidentally dropped an ancient vase. She was too busy apologising to think about the fact that she had the ability to save it. It had taken her five embarrassing minutes until she fixed her mishap.

“It was a vase, nothing too big and you fixed it afterwards. Your training is going great but you need experience and there is no better way to gain it than easy missions like these.” The King told her while she put the battery back into her phone. “I'll think about it.” She said and she knew he was right but she also felt self-conscious about it. She had had a month to overthink the whole team cap thing...

“Don't think about it too long. Good night, Miss Bell.” The King then smiled and left the lab. “G'night, your majesty!” she called after him and then turned to the sleeping Bucky while pressing down the button to turn on her phone after putting back the battery. “Oh Bucky, what do I do with my life?” She asked. “Stupid things, you should have been on every single mission with Steve!” She replied in a deeper voice to herself. Then her eyes widen. “I'm going crazy.”

…

She stood on the roof of a building overlooking most of the buildings that surrounded the area in which their target was. Her job was to make sure no one was on the roofs with a sniper. “Quantum, report.” She heard over her earpiece that was attached to a tactical mask. She inwardly groaned at the stupid codename she was given but she had to have one and the only alternative to Quantum was something like those stupid super-hero names. (cliché names that made her feel sick.) “No suspicious sighting.” She said and turned her head again to check the next roof. 

Ruby had worked with the scientist of Wakanda to get her a nice combat suit. It ended up being a suit that was tight to her body but stretched if needed. It was made of a plastic-like fabric but much durable and bulletproof. Even though it was mostly black there were grey accents where her ribs were and on the insides of her arms and legs. On her breast was a red star that was partly covered by a shawl that was attached to the tactical masked that reached just above her cheekbones.

There were belts on her hips with knives attached to them and there were even two knives on either arm permanently attached to where her cubit was. She had stolen the idea from a Batman comic. Everyone in her unit had the same black combat boots that she would never give away ever again. They were soundproof. No matter how hard she kicked it made zero sound. There were two more knives on each of her thighs and again in her boots but this time they had a respective slot to slide them in as she had specifically asked for it.

Inside of her gloves was a button with which she could activate a taser that was built in each finger of the glove. Also a part of the suit that all of the members in her unit had.

Ruby disappeared from one roof and appeared on another one to get a better look from a different angle. She was not sure if she had seen correctly but she thought there had been a reflection on another roof just two buildings southwards. “Cap, I think I saw something on the roof of the building next to the train station, southward. On my way to investigate.” She informed Steve and was already on said roof the next second. “Alright, take care. Sam got your back from above.” He told her.

Ruby gripped one of her many hidden knives and swung in elegantly in her hand to calm her nerves. Even though there were handguns on each of her hips, right beside the knives, she did not like them as much as her knives. She never had any problem with melee fight as she could close gaps by just teleporting towards her enemies but Steve and the rest of the team told her that she should take the guns anyway just in case she could not teleport.

Her blue eyes spotted a small stone on the floor next to her and she decided to throw it next to the ventilation shaft. If anyone hid there they would hopefully jump out of their hiding and Ruby would not lose her advantage of knowing where her enemy was. The small stone flew through the air and hit the ventilation shaft with a resounding clang. Nothing happened.

The woman squinted her eyes and decided to walk around the shaft just to be sure but her ears picked up a noise behind her and instead of checking out the backside of the shaft she turned around lifting her arm up in the process catching an arm that was flying towards her face. Without thinking, she kicked the man that tried to attack her in the groin, spun around and wanted to kick his face with the heel of her foot but he caught it easily and threw her off balance. She fell to the floor but wasted no time to roll away as a foot of the stranger already descended down on her.

“Alright, strong guy on the roof, think I can take him.” She said while rolling back on her feet and throwing a knife at her opponent. He dodged it with ease and stomped towards her. She made a quick mental not to maybe make magnetic weapons so it would fly back to her and catch her enemies off guard. But there were more important things at the time. 

“Falcon, check out the other roofs. This guy is trained, maybe ex-military. They don't work alone normally.” she informed her team and dodged more of his blows and threw punches herself that he either caught or dodged himself. Then he landed a hard punch to her cheek which sent her tumbling to her knees. She was one hundred per cent sure she had heard something crack inside her skull. And the pained expression on her face was evident enough to her injury. Also her head felt like her brain was just slammed against the inside of her skull.

The world spun around her for a moment before she could shake it off and catch his foot that was about to connect to her ribs. It was a harder kick than expected as she went flying off the roof but what the guy on the roof had not expected was that she appeared just behind him kicking his lower back as hard as she could as he stood at the edge of the roof to see her flying down.

The man stumbled but turned around quickly to kick a high kick. She blocked it with her lower arm, cutting his shin in the process. The man flinched and looked at her angrily. But something was off. He looked, other than the fleeting moment of anger, pretty dead and emotionless. She used the moment of hesitation and ran towards him, jumped into the air and kicked his sternum with both her feet connecting. He stood close enough to the edge that he stumbled back and toppling over the knee-high wall. 

Ruby braked her fall with her arms quickly, seeing the man falling off the roof backwards. She rolled on her back and jumped to her feet in one go. (Well she did not really know how to do that, she actually just teleported back to her feet making it look like she knew some nice ninja tricks)

She pulled down her mask that then was tucked right underneath her chin and looked down the side of the building. She panted slightly and a sweaty pearl rolled down the side of her face. When her gaze scanned the ground for any sign of the man she spotted him but not as she expected – dead crunched on the floor by his own weight and gravity – but running away. 

She took another deep breath trying to steady it and pulled on her mask again. “Guys, I think you might want to hear this.” she panted into the com. Every breath hurt her cheek and she made sure she did not move her jaw too much as her injury pounded all the while.

Next to the weird guy on the roof and a rifle Ruby found behind the ventilation shaft there was nothing out of the ordinary while finishing their mission. Falcon – Sam – helped monitor the roofs along with Ruby to make sure that guy had been alone. Something about that was fishy. Why was he alone? Was the mission not that important or had he worked on his own? If yes, who exactly had been the target and would he try again? And why on earth were his blows as heavy as they were?

…

Back in Wakanda Sam, Steve, Ruby and three other men Ruby had never seen sat on a table in their “conference” room T'Challa had provided them it was in the same building as the lab and medical centre. Ruby held a pack of ice to her cheek that was a dark blue and hurt every time she spoke or moved her head. It had gotten worse after the adrenaline wore off. She would have to go to the doc after debriefing. Steve had told her to go before debriefing but she did not want to miss anything.

“Any information on the guy?” Steve asked. “No, I assumed he might be ex-military or something like that as he was trained very well, but no match with the face my camera picked up.” She mumbled more due to the pain coming from her cheek than the fact that she was angry with herself that the man had escaped. “Plus he somehow survived a fall from a five-story building.” she added and flinched. Steve nodded. “Alright, we will investigate this further. But until we have any more information expect to be ready any time as we don't know what this guy's goal was.”

The debriefing was over quickly and everyone left the room except for Ruby and Steve. Ruby's body was aching a bit from the blows the man had landed and so it took her longer to stand up. Steve, the gentleman he was helped her. “Come on, let's get you to the doc.” Ruby wanted to smile but groaned at the sting in her cheek. She hoped it was not broken. But it certainly was.

They reached the 'hospital' wing of the enormous building within five minutes and Ruby had to sit down on one of those treatment tables. Even with the ice, her cheek was twice the size it should be and thus the doc ordered to take an X-Ray of her skull. “I hate X-rays, Steve.” Ruby complained while the nurses readied the machine. “Just a quick snap of your head and then you're done. Stop complaining.” He told her.

“Get me food or else I will complain as long as I can or your ear comes off. Whatever happens first.” she threatened. “I'm pretty sure you will give up first but alright. We'll meet outside, okay?” He asked to which she nodded but that was a stupid idea as her cheek then hurt again and she pressed her eyes shut while waving Steve away.

The nurses took the picture of her skull and she sat back down on the table waiting for the results. But instead of the doctor, a young woman entered the room. Ruby did not recognise her but she did not wear any of the scientist's clothing. And she was young... like... fifteen! “Hello, Miss Bell.” She greeted with the usual wakandan accent Ruby began to love. But that did not stop Ruby from tensing up on the spot as she wondered how that girl knew her name. “Don't worry. I'm T'Challa's younger sister. Shuri.” She explained with a grin.

Ruby lifted her left eyebrow at that and wondered why the princess visited her. Then the woman who was sitting on the table noticed the x-ray pictures on the tablet the princess held in her hand. They looked not normal. Even someone without a doctor in medicine could say that much. “What is this about?” She asked feeling her breathing picking up speed. The door opened again and the doctor entered the room with a nervous expression. “If it's about the tumour in my head, I already know that...” She said but Shuri just opened her mouth and looked at her confused.

“No... We would like to know who did that.” The princess said. “A guy on a roof, punched me in the face, why?” Ruby was looking between the doc and the princess. What was going on? “Not your injury. This.” She handed Ruby the tablet in her hand and instead of the slight milky colour of the bone they were white as if they were too dense for the rays to go through them. Much like prostheses were white on pictures like that.

“What.. What am I looking at?” Ruby asked noticing that one of her teeth was cracked right in the middle. Her tongue traced the crack and she flinched because of the pain radiating from it. So that was where the pain was coming from. “It's an x-ray of your skull and...” Shuri looked at the doc for a moment. “It seems that you skull was somehow reinforced by a metal. We can't say what it is exactly but whoever did that had advanced technology, at least on the level of Wakanda and we did not do it. And we know no one else who could do it.” 

If Ruby would not already have sit she would have sat down so she decided to just lie down and breathe. “This isn't real, that is all in your head.” She repeated like a mantra forcing away the memory of a scalpel that cut open her skin wherever a bone was located. Her nightmare had been a memory. She dropped the tablet as she pressed her hands to her eyes and heard it shatter on the ground instantly feeling bad about breaking yet another item of the royal family. But she did not want to see anything in the world. She ignored the pain in her cheek as she kept her hands pressed down on her eyes.

Shuri approached her carefully not wanting to startle her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “We could figure out what metal it is and if your whole skeleton is covered with it.” she explained and Ruby knew that she wanted to help but it just sounded like the princess wanted to study her and that made her feel sick. She shook her head feeling her hands were slightly wet. Looking at them she wondered if it was sweat because of the panic she felt in her chest or if it was tears that filled her eyes as she tried hard to keep control. “No, I... Can you just fix my tooth... I want to get out of here. I need... some free time from things like that.”

Luckily Shuri did not mind the shattered display of her tablet as with a swig of Ruby's fingers it was fixed and internally Shuri wondered just how far Ruby could send back things in time. But knowing that the woman in front of her had to deal with other things first she suppressed the urge to ask about her abilities.

The doc had to pull out the tooth as it was broken beyond repair. One of the roots was actually broken so the tooth was in three parts. It was the last one in the row and could easily be replaced by a prosthesis but the pain would remain for much longer, the doc said at least a week. “No sports, no chewing on the injured side and preferably you should eat soup rather than solid meals.” 

Ruby groaned but nodded, her mind was still on the matter that she was more freak than she had thought so she left without waiting for her doc to tell her that it was okay for her to leave. The fear and sadness she had felt before dissipated with each step she took towards the exit of the building and were replaced by anger. 

She ignored her sore muscles as she fastened her steps and pushed open the doors in front of her with more force than was necessary, making Steve jump as he had not seen her coming. She ignored his questioning look and just went past him hoping for as little interaction that day as possible. The freshly treated tooth pounded with each fastened beat of her heart that just got faster as she realised that Steve would not just let her get away with that and then she felt his firm grip on her upper arm that caused her to stop.

“Hey, what happened?” He asked concern evident in each word. “Nothing.” She grumbled not meeting his gaze. Granted she could just try and teleport away but that would not stop him to be concerned and she needed his comfort at that moment even though she did not act like she knew she needed him. “You look way too deadly for 'nothing happened'.” He pointed out and she released a puff of air in an attempt to calm her down.

“I.. Well I was in there waiting for my doc with the x-ray results when the princess entered the room and.. -” She cut herself off as she finally looked at Steve. Her anger had morphed back into sadness and it was practically written in her eyes for Steve to read. He loosened the grip on her arm only to take a step towards her and embrace her softly. She was, in the end, like a sister for him and it hurt him to see her pain even though he did not even know what had caused it.

As sobs escaped her mouth she tried to speak but Steve could hardly understand her incoherent rambling in-between sobs. “Shh, calm down, Ruby. Whatever happened it's okay.” He said as they still stood in front of the building holding each other as Ruby tried really hard to concentrate on her breathing. “I'm a freak, Steve!” She finally managed to cry out her hands shaking as she clasped the fabric of his clothing. Steve was startled by her statement. “Who said that?” He asked. His brows were furrowed and he felt anger in his stomach as if he was ready to punch someone.

“Well... I said that... Shuri, the princess, told me that... There.. well somehow.. m-my skull is.. well it's covered with some metal a-and...” another sob interrupted her and Steve broke the embrace. He held her shoulders and looked directly at her. “Ruby, that does not make you a freak...” 

Her eyes scanned for a lie in his eyes but she did not find any which surprised her. “I'm a failed experiment, Steve!” She protested and he saw her conviction as he suddenly began to chuckle. “That's not funny!” With all the strength she could muster she pushed him away and caused him to stumble back a bit. “You're right, it's not. But don't you see? I'm an experiment myself. I'm as much as a freak as you are, Ruby.” He smiled at her. She opened her mouth to say he is not but the logic said that if she saw herself as a freak, he was a freak, too... “There is nothing wrong with you, Ruby. Just because you just learned something new about you does not mean that you changed. We can be freaks together if you want.” He winked at her. She closed her mouth, opened it and closed it again. 

Her tears had stopped streaming out of her eyes uncontrollably.

“You're not a freak, Steve.” She murmured. “You're not a freak either, Ruby.” He replied. “Punk.” She smiled sadly at him using Bucky's name for their best friend. Steve just smiled at her. “Come on, let's get your mood up a bit. I heard there is a new film they show in the cinema today.” Ruby gasped. “What, Wakanda has a cinema?! Why did no one – ouch!” The anger and the sadness were not totally forgotten but she knew there was no sense in self-pity but with all the excitement she had forgotten about her injured tooth that protested after the conversation. “- tell me...” She grumbled the rest of the sentence making Steve grin. 

They began to walk towards the cinema ignoring the weird glances they got for still wearing their combat gear. “Can we get some food first? I'm famished. But something like... burger!” she asked him. “I doubt you will be able to eat it, though...” he raised an eyebrow at her. “Oh, well... The doc said I should not eat it but... I can't live off soup! There is barely a gram fat on me already!” she protested. “That's because you eat way too little for all the energy you use.” He retorted.


	10. Chapter 10

If you wondered, Ruby did not end up getting the burger she wanted because, as Steve had predicted she could physically not eat it. Her mood had been somewhat aggressive until he got her popcorn and a soup she could actually eat.

…

A month had passed and Ruby had spent most of her time on smaller missions, in the lab sitting next to Bucky and telling him about the newest missions or investigating on the case of the strange man she had encountered a month prior.

But since there was little to no evidence and the blurred picture they got of him was not enough to get a match in literally any database they knew her investigation came to a stop which was more than frustrating. Not only for Ruby but for the whole team.

While she was consumed by work around her she almost missed an incoming call by Steve so she hurried over and picked up her phone in the last second. “Please tell me you got something for me to work on.” She almost begged. “I do but to be honest this is anything but good. Get to the debriefing room. I'll meet you there in five.” and as fast as the call had begun it was gone. Ruby furrowed her eyebrows at the flat device in her hand. Something got Steve on edge and that was no good sign. Ruby felt her suit appearing around her. It was another thing the scientists of Wakanda had worked on.

T'Challa wanted to have his special forces team, as Ruby called it, to be always ready, just like his guards always wore their armour. So Ruby always wore bracelets that contained her suit. Steve felt uncomfortable with them so he wanted to just put his suit on like he always did and Sam... Well, there was no way they could make his wings much smaller so he too did not have the fancy suit-in-bracelet-thing.

However, Ruby practically ran towards the debriefing room checking her weapons on the way. All were in their place. Everyone looked up as Ruby entered the room, she was afraid she had been the last but Steve had yet to show up and that is what he did a second after Ruby sat down between Sam and Robert (One of the three guys she did not really know well).

Steve looked like he had just seen a ghost so Ruby decided to remind him to speak. “So? What happened?” She asked and Steve came back to life, closing his mouth that had been slightly ajar. Then he cleared his throat. “Tony called.” was all he said and it caused Sam and Ruby to stiffen. “What do you mean he called?” Sam asked. “Like, he wanted to make up to you or what?” Ruby rolled her eyes. “If it was an 'I want to tell you how much I love you' call Steve would sure as hell not call the cavalry.” She snapped.

Steve, seeming slightly annoyed interrupted the two bickering children. “Actually I don't know why he called because it rang once and then the call was disconnected. It seemed fishy so I checked if Nat knew something.” As if on cue the door opened again revealing the red-haired woman Ruby had only seen once two months prior on the airport in Leipzig. Natasha Romanoff. “Stark was attacked and abducted.” She said bluntly. Ruby held her breath for a second. “What happened?” Sam spoke out her thoughts.

“Witnesses say there was a fight in his home.” Natasha replied obviously taking over the lead as Steve did not feel well. “So, he lost?” Ruby asked raising her eyebrows. She knew that she was not the best fighter but she had some unfair advantages and she had a hard time fighting that guy, not even stopping him in the slightest.

Natasha paused and that was when Ruby saw that the whole thing did not leave her as cold as Ruby thought. “He did, he gave his attacker a hard time but he lost regardless.” Ruby nodded. “Any footage of the fight?” She then asked. “Whoever it was was smart enough to delete it. That got to say something as no one up until now was able to hack Tony's A.I.'s.”

Ruby thought about it for a moment while Sam picked up where Ruby had left off. “But who would attack him?” He asked. That's what Ruby thought about. And somehow her gut told her that it was connected to the guy on the roof. Maybe his goal was not to attack the celebrity they guarded but one of their team. The bullets in the rifle had been weird and coated with some sort of toxin. They could not figure out what toxin it was but they knew it was not lethal.

Steve finally spoke up. “I have no idea but whoever it was, there is something bigger going on.” Ruby decided to share her suspicions. “You think there is a connection to this guy on the roof? His strength would explain Stark's struggle.” Steve nodded in agreement.

“Ruby's right. Bucky and I had problems fighting him. Either they outnumbered him or whoever it was is a lot stronger than me, or Bucky.” Ruby's gaze scanned each face in the room. Sam looked calm but she knew that his heart must be racing, she could practically feel his fear. Steve looked angry, probably with himself that he could not protect a part of his family. No matter how much that part hated him. Natasha had her cool mask up so there was no way Ruby could decipher what that woman was thinking but Ruby thought that she might be just as scared as Steve was. Robert, Jeff and Francis had no connection to Stark but all thought of Steve as one of the strongest men in the world so their faces had a big 'I'm fucking scared' plastered from one side to the other.

Ruby had faced that guy on the roof and was lucky she was a freak or else he might have punched right through her head. Her hand laid on her cheek for a moment as she was deep in thought. If they began with Stark... Where would they stop?

“What about Wanda, Vision, Barton, heck everyone else who is not currently in Wakanda and somewhat save?” she asked jumping up as the thought hit her, her hands were placed flat on the table in front of her as she leaned forward. Steve looked more alive than a second ago. “Nat, we will check on Vision and Wanda, hope we can find them. Ruby, you will fly to New York. There is this... sorcerer. We might need his help with this, maybe he is on their list too. Sam, you will join her and check in on the Spider-Boy.” Sam groaned at that as memories of their last fight popped in his head. “Why don't I get the sorcerer...?” he asked as Ruby glared at him. Steve ignored him and just continued. “Robert will go to Lang, Jeff, check in on Rhodes and Barton and Francis, you will be our eyes and ears in Wakanda.”

All of them nodded as most of them filed out of the room. All except for Natasha, Ruby and Steve. “Steve.” Ruby spoke up to stop him before he left. Natasha glanced between them for a moment before she left the room, fully knowing that this was not her conversation. “You know when this turns to shit we need him.” she said. “No.” Was Steve's steadfast answer. “You know he does not want it. The docs are still trying to find a way to get Hydra out of his head!” he reminded her.

“I know! But-” she protested. “Ruby, don't be silly. What you are suggesting is selfish! I know you miss him as much as I do, but this is a battle we can fight alone. Don't let your mind be distracted by him. Concentrate on finding Stark and protecting the others.” He was right and Ruby knew it. She just stared at him her heart pounding furiously against her ribcage anyway. Maybe she was being selfish, just this one time.

Their staring contest was interrupted by Natasha who opened the door. “Steve, I can't find Wanda and Vision. Maybe we should check in on Pepper and see if there is anything left where Tony was abducted.” She told him to which Steve just nodded still staring at Ruby. “Don't do anything stupid.” He warned her as she squinted her blue eyes. Then he left the room and Ruby found herself in one of the quinjets a second later. If one more person would disappear she would wake him up. They needed him. But maybe she really was being stupid.

He did not know that guy either. He had no clue of what was going on. She did not know if he wanted the metal arm Wakandan scientists had built for him and she was not sure if he ever wanted to fight again. She let out a puff of air and started the engines of the jet to get to New York as quick as possible.

What were these guys up to?

…

Even with the faster pace of the jet, it took Ruby about half a day to reach New York and even then she had to land outside the city as the former Avengers tower was no option for her. Not wanting to deactivate her suit she put on a black poncho that almost reached the middle of her thigh with a huge hood attached to it, hiding at least most of her knives and the two guns on her hips. The jet was locked and Ruby began to walk towards New York City. When she earned weird glances by pedestrians she realised she had her tactical mask still hiding half of her face so she pulled it down quickly her cheeks heating up just a tad bit.

As she entered New York she noticed that she had no clue where she was supposed to look for that sorcerer and she doubted that she could just google 'Sorcerer NYC' and get his Facebook profile. She huffed and teleported on top of the roof of one of the nearby skyscrapers. How does one find a sorcerer? She wondered and appeared on the next roof looking for everything and nothing at the same time. While she was scanning each building her thoughts wandered back in time. _Steve had told me to take Sam with me... Damn it!_ She scrunched up her nose at her stupidity. So Sam had to fly to New York alone.

Just five minutes later she, at least, got her answer to how to find a sorcerer. Not that it was any great information on which she could write a book or anything because it would just contain one sentence. “You don't, he finds you.”

That was just what happened.

Beneath Ruby's feet appeared an orange-red and sparkling circle and the next thing she knew she dropped into a house. Her hands were suddenly cuffed behind her back and her weapons disappeared leaving her panicking. As she tried to free her hands or somehow just escape this place she realised her powers were not working as they should. Her eyes just widened even more as her breathing was a fully grown hyperventilating.

She dropped to her side as she had been kneeling on the floor and tried all she could to get out of the cuffs that suppressed her abilities as she assumed. Then someone entered the room. Ruby's eyes snapped up and took in the man in front of her.

Granted, she had never seen a sorcerer but if she had to categorise the man in front of her he would definitely be called a sorcerer. “Why does a wanted criminal jump around New York?” He asked. He was tall, wore weird bluish robes and had a red cloak. His hair was mostly brown and cut short but the sections just above his ears were beginning to get grey. While he gestured at her she noticed huge scars on each of his fingers and internally wondered what had happened to him.

“I'm not a criminal!” she protested raising her eyebrow while craning her neck to somehow look the man in the eyes while she was still lying on the floor with her hands behind her back. “Oh, so what happened two months ago does not count then?” He asked raising his right eyebrow which made Ruby jealous for a second as her right eyebrow only cooperated when the left did the same thing. She shook her head slightly. _Concentration, Bell!_ She scolded herself.

“Well, okay. But that was because of that Zemo character and because we thought there were super-soldiers threatening the safety of literally everyone on this planet.” She explained but the sorcerer only huffed a laugh and averted his gaze. “Well, I don't have time for this.” He said lifting his right arm and Ruby saw that he wanted to open one of the portals again so her eyes widened as she spoke fast, almost stumbling over her own words. “W-w-wait! On hold, wait!” He paused mid-action and looked at her.

“You're the sorcerer I guess.” She spoke up, stating the obvious after clearing her throat. “Sorcerer Supreme. Doctor Stephen Strange.” He clarified. “Right, Doctor Strange.” she nodded. “Listen, I know I disregarded the law and all but right now I need you to know that there is a man out there.” she nodded in the direction she assumed the street was and continued. “We don't know who he is but he abducted Tony Stark, Iron man.” She explained to which Strange rolled his eyes. “I know who Tony Stark is.”

“Right. Anyhow, as we don't have any evidence on who that guy is and if he is connected to what happened to Stark you don't have to listen to me.” She really should have chosen her words more carefully as he said. “Great” and lifted his arm again. “But!” she yelled and caused him to stop once more. “I have a feeling that someone is attacking anyone who would be able to protect this world.” She explained. This is what piqued his interest.

“So you think there is one man who is attacking people like me?” He asked. _And me, duh_. She added in her thoughts but nodded. The next moment she was seated in a soft chair with tea in her uncuffed hands. “Tell me everything you know.” He said to which Ruby furrowed her eyebrows. “My only job was to warn you, Sir.” She said adjusting her position in the chair. “I can still send you to jail.” He argued as he lifted his hand threateningly. “Alright.” She sighed knowing that his abilities were far stronger than hers.

She told him about the guy on the roof and how he never tried to get to the celebrity again which made her think that he had a different goal. She also explained that she suspected a group behind all this as the man almost seemed like an empty shell.

“I appreciate the warning... considering the circumstances I think it would be best to let you return to your team.” He said and waved her off. “Doc, I think it might be best if you would join me returning to Wakanda. There is no safer place on earth.” She suggested. “I'm afraid I cannot leave. But I will be just fine.” He explained and Ruby felt like she could trust in his abilities so she nodded and just before she could disappear again he added. “I trust that you will leave New York as fast as you can.” it was a demand so she sighed and disappeared from his sight only to appear right next to the jet, her weapons back where they belonged and her mask dangled on the shawl that hung loosely around her neck.

She sighed and let a small shiver ran over her body. That was one heck of an encounter she was not eager to repeat any time soon. She entered the jet and dialled Steve's number, even though they had argued earlier she had to know if he was okay. Ruby could not shake off the bad feeling about the whole situation that kept plaguing her. The phone rang for almost an eternity (56 seconds to be precise as Ruby had counted each of them) before Steve picked up. “Ruby, are you okay?” his voice sounded through the jet as the engines powered up and the autopilot was flying it back towards Wakanda. “Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. You could have warned me about that Strange character, though.” She murmured as she rubbed her tired eyes.

“We checked out where Tony and the mysterious man fought and found some blood on a vase. We took the samples and are returning to Wakanda.” He explained ignoring her statement. “Well, Strange has been warned but does not want to come with me so I'm flying back right now. Did you hear anything about Wanda yet?” She asked concerned for the young woman. “Nothing. But I assume that's a good sign. I guess we would hear something when they would be attacked.” He sighed to which Ruby nodded. _Silly me, he can't see me_. She realised and said, “Yeah... what about Clint and the others?”

There was a small silence before he answered. “Robert and Jeff are returning to Wakanda right now. I cannot reach Sam, though.” Ruby frowned. He was assigned to check in on the kid so he was in Queens, quite close to her. “I'll see if I can find him, you return to Wakanda.” She ended the call, turned the jet and landed it back where it had been only minutes earlier before she pulled the hood back up to hide her braided dirty-blonde hair. While she took the same path she had chosen when she first approached New York she held her phone to her ear and dialled Sam's number.

Even after five tries – no response. “Crap.” She murmured and tried to locate Sam's phone only to see that there was no signal. His phone was turned off.


	11. Chapter 11

The young woman stuffed her phone back into the small pocket and picked up speed as she appeared on a roof she had looked at moments earlier. “I found a sorcerer in the 21 century. I will be able to find a spider and a bird...” she murmured and her keen eyes scanned her surroundings. All the while she pulled up the mask and took a deep breath of the filtered air. It smelled different. Ruby had gotten used to it.  
  
She crouched to the edge of the building and activated her earpiece to call Sam again. Just in case he would turn his phone back on. No luck. There was no sense in waiting on top of one building all the time. She had a much higher chance if she would change her position occasionally and so she did and appeared a block further down the road. She wondered if the sorcerer felt her presence as he must have had the first time she had intruded his territory. She let her gaze wander as in the corner of her eye she saw something blue swing around and disappear as quickly as it had appeared.  
  
Ruby wasted no time as she teleported to the building closest to where she had seen the figure, running over to the edge. Sure enough, Spider-Man was swinging to the next building, taking a turn to the right so she followed him. One block, two blocks and many more. She ran and jumped and called out for the boy who either did not hear her or ignored her completely. After twenty minutes of chasing she hears a familiar hum of engines behind her.  
  
She glanced behind her while running towards the edge of the building she was on and recognised Sam. “Sam!” she shouted appearing on the next roof not giving up on chasing Spider-Man. But when Sam's gaze shot towards her and he suddenly dived down, she stopped. She looked up to where Sam came chasing down and her eyes widened as she realised that he was about to attack his teammate.   
  
She dodged his attack last second by rolling over to her right. While she rolled back to her feet she shrugged off the poncho and grabbed one of the dull knives that were instead more like a smaller baton with build-in taser function. Her mind went a mile a minute as she tried to dodge another blow of her teammate. “Sam, it's me! Ruby!” She shouted, pulling down her mask. Sam ignored her statement and went for another dive. She blocked his foot with her baton and he ascended back up into the sky.  
  
“That's not good...” She murmured trying to figure out why Sam was attacking her. Was there a talent in the play who controlled him? Was it something else or did he just change sides? She huffed and connected a call with Steve as she rolled to the left again to dodge yet another blow. Her plan was to somehow knock Sam out and cuff him to bring him back to Wakanda but there was no way she could do that when he kept flying around. Her encounter with Stark had taught her that much: Don't teleport on the back of a flying object that could potentially harm you and send you ten or more stories flying towards the ground. No way she would be dumb enough to repeat that.  
  
Especially when her plan was to knock out the said flying object. She might be able to save her own ass but Sam would fly towards the ground and towards his death. Ruby jumped behind a smaller wall and disappeared only to appear on a different roof in hopes to buy her some time to talk to Steve.  
  
“Ruby?” He asked concern filled his voice. “What's going on?” Steve had not expected her to call him again that fast, and not breathing as heavily as she was on top of that. “Sam's...” she was interrupted by Sam finding her and now shooting at her so she had to teleport to another roof. “attacking me!” she panted into her com. “He is what?” Steve asked with a raised voice. “I don't know, he does not react to his name and just blindly-”   
  
She was cut off by yet another individual attacking her but this time it was Spider-Man who appeared in front of her punching her square in the face and sending her flying back a few feet. She had to pay more attention as she had not noticed him early enough. As she had been talking at the time she was punched she had bitten her tongue and was spitting out a small amount of blood. “Ugh.” she complained getting up only to catch Sam's foot before it connected to her head.   
  
The call was disconnected and Ruby was on her own as she dodged and caught blows from both Spider-Man and Sam. She could hit with her baton once or twice but with both trained in hand to hand combat as much as she was, it was hard for her to keep up the pace. Her face burned as much as her lung that stung with each breath as her stamina was running lower and lower.   
  
She spied a higher building on her right side with a housing that probably led to the staircase of the house. That was her chance to catch her breath as she could hide behind it for a while. She kicked Sam in his gut and pressed her palm with her taser-gloves to the upper part of Spider-Man's arm to distract him just long enough before she disappeared from their sight.  
  
As she arrived on the other building behind the small housing she collapsed to her knees stretching her back as straight as she could to take even and long breaths. This was bad... But she was sure that Tony's disappearance and Sam and Spider-Man's behaviour were connected. The question was how did they do it? How did the men, whoever they were, control three of the strongest heroes on earth? Heck, one of them was an avenger.  
  
A familiar orange circle appeared next to her revealing the now known face of Doctor Strange. She was still on the floor catching her breath only looking up to him with a plagued expression. The mask on her face hid her mouth but its corners were pulled downwards. “Didn't I tell you to leave?” He asked with his arrogant posture. “Well, yeah, but then I found a friend of mine and the now-not-so-friendly-neighbourhood-Spider-Man attacking me.” She panted, getting up. Strange raised his eyebrow but looking like he was ready to fight.   
  
“You brought friends?” He asked. “We sent members of our team to everyone we know who might be on the list of this weird guy I told you about. Or his organisation.” She explained pressing her back to the housing while sneaking to the edge to get a glimpse of the two men she had fought. Weirdly enough the cloak the sorcerer had worn suddenly was next to her – ALONE – and mimicked her movements. She gasped at it, confused and shook her head. “Get your cloak a leash or something.” She murmured.  
  
On the other roof were both Spider-Man and Sam getting up from Ruby's last attack. “Do you think you might be able to get them like you di-” she was cut off by the whir of engines and quickly looked back to where she had seen the two men only to see them how they were escorted into a jet by none other than the guy who had cost her a tooth. “No!” She screamed teleporting back to the other roof. If they would enter the jet and fly off there was no way she could rescue them.  
  
She could not let that happen. Her feet carried her to the edge of the building as the hatch began to close. She jumped anyway and her fingers grazed the edge of it only to get a hold on some sort of pipe. But as the hatch closed fully the pipe disappeared and she dropped towards the ground. Feeling the gravity pull her down she felt the breath caught in her lungs and a second later her body connected to the ground. A small “uff” left her lips.  
  
Strange had created a portal underneath her so she had merely dropped six feet, maybe seven. Not caring to acknowledge the look of confusion on his face and scrambled back to her feet running back to the edge where she followed the jet with her gaze as it left New York. Southward. She thought grasping onto every little clue she could get, fully knowing that it would do nothing. It had been her failure once more that a part of Steve's family, a part of her new family was captured by a group no one knew. By a group with only God knows what plans. “My fault...” She whispered stumbling back a step. History does repeat.  
  
Strange felt pity for the young woman in front of him as he heard her whisper. He knew what it felt like to fail. He made the decision to help her. To help a criminal. He shook his head and sighed. He was an important sorcerer and let himself down to help a complete stranger, a criminal because he felt pity for her. That he would regret it, was all he thought.  
  
Ruby breathed evenly as she pulled herself together. _I can't drown in self-pity again if I want to find them._ She told herself. As she turned around she looked at the doc with furrowed eyebrows, determination figuratively dripping from her. Strange wondered if his pity for that woman was unfounded as she stood there with only a hint of some tears that already began to dry on her half-covered cheeks. “Listen, I know you would rather stay in your... err... temple... all day but I won't let anyone else get caught by those maniacs. So either you come with me voluntary or I will kick your ass into that jet towards Wakanda.”   
  
Granted, both of them knew that she would lose a fight but Strange had already made up his mind to help and the woman looked truly scary. So he nodded his head slowly while his cloak levitated next to him turning as if to look at him and then turning towards Ruby. If Ruby would not know it better she would say the cloak was scared of her. “Alright. Put on your cloak, we'll leave. But my way.” She commanded to which the cloak settled on Strange's shoulders and Ruby grabbed his arm.  
  
With all the energy she had used up and the emotions that ran through her body plus the adrenaline wearing off slowly she felt like a truck had run her over as they appeared in front of the jet. Strange looked a bit sick as if the usage of foreign magic would harm him physically. The hatch opened and she entered the jet followed by Strange and his cloak that was levitating beside him looking around the jet as if it was curious about what it could see. Ruby paid it no mind as she dropped into the pilot seat typing in the coordinates for Wakanda and letting the autopilot get them there.  
  
She pulled her phone from her pocket and saw that it was shattered completely. Good for her she had that little trick up her sleeve and flicked her fingers at the device to return it to a functioning state. Strange eyed her while she did that fascinated by her magic. Or what he assumed to be magic. “Where did you learn to do that?” He asked as she was looking for Steve in her contacts. “I taught it myself... kinda.” She explained cryptically and dialled the number.   
  
Steve picked up the phone instantly. “Ruby, are you okay?” He asked using his best older-brother-voice. She let out a puff of air. “Considering the circumstances... I'm alive.” she explained. “What happened?” he demanded and Ruby knew she would have a hard time holding her emotions at bay and explaining what had happened on the roofs of New York. “They have them. Sam and Spider-Boy.” She admitted barely above a whisper and Steve's response was a tired sigh. “It's not your fault, Ruby.” He told her and somehow she had known he would say something like that but that did not make it any easier.  
  
“I could have teleported into that freaking jet a-and...” she stuttered. Strange had the feeling he should keep his mouth shut but talked anyway. “And get yourself captured or killed.” He stated his arms crossed in front of his chest, the cloak mimicked his movement and Ruby felt more judged by a piece of fabric than the sorcerer who looked at her sternly. “Who's that?” Steve asked. “Doctor Stephen Strange.” He introduced himself.   
  
“The guy you call 'the sorcerer'.” Ruby clarified. Steve made a noise of understanding before he spoke again. “Well, Ruby you should get some rest. Get back to Wakanda and meet us in the debriefing room.” He instructed. Ruby sighed once more feeling more defeated and tired with each minute that passed. “Alright, see you there.” She said and disconnected the call. She dropped her head into her palms for a minute and then stood up.   
  
“There's a... bed... if you want to call it that, back there. I'll try to get some sleep. Keep your curious fingers off the mainboard or else I'll cut them off.” She told him before walking over to one side of the jet and opening up a part of the wall that hid a small mattress. She jumped on it and curled herself up, facing the interior of the jet where Strange was left standing a bit lost.

 


End file.
